# The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 7, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070 "2016-12-07T00:25:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1564
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31265 "2019-03-16T22:32:10Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Most agreed, but for this: > > > [@](#): > > > > and used significantly fewer unique words. > > Trump has, if nothing else, used more unique words than most past presidents that I’ve seen. … Heh. But “expressive vocabulary\*”—the size of the list of words a person uses (as opposed to the size of the list of words a person _recognizes_) is what they’re talking about, here. Donald repeats the same words over and over again–more so than the other Presidents examined. Donald has a small, small list. \*[Receptive Vocabulary | SpringerLink](https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-0-387-79061-9_2359) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31266 "2019-03-16T23:31:25Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Heh. But “expressive vocabulary\*”—the size of the list of words a person uses (as opposed to the size of the list of words a person _recognizes_) is what they’re talking about, here. > > Donald repeats the same words over and over again–more so than the other Presidents examined. > > Donald has a small, small list. > > \*[Receptive Vocabulary | SpringerLink](https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-0-387-79061-9_2359) I guess when you have “the best words” you don’t need to use all of those other ones. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31267 "2019-03-16T23:31:38Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Most agreed, but for this: > Trump has, if nothing else, used more unique words than most past presidents that I’ve seen. > > Obama couldn’t have come up with covfefe, Lincoln never had a hamberder, and even Washington never called the nation he represents “The Unite Shaates.” > > There were a couple of tweets from the Obama admin, but whether they were tapped out by Obama or a staffer, they were not done extemporaneously while on the shitter. > > I see social media as a useful way to reach the public. But, it, like most forms of reaching the public, should actually be mostly handled by the public relations division. > > Think it’ll be here soon? I’m getting hungry. I thought you didn’t aporove of tweeting while on the commode. > [@OttoDaFe](#): > > “It’s a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.”– Andrew Jackson (CFSG’s faverite Presidnet) Of course that’s his favorite. Jackson was just as bigoted as Tan the Conman is. > [@k9bfriender](#): > > It’s a threat that he expects other people to act on. He thinks that it is threatening, and it may actually be, but he is asking his followers to follow up on his words. And people have done so, both at his rallies and out and about. Those people, after they acted on his words, he’s defended. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31268 "2019-03-17T00:18:00Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I guess when you have “the best words” you don’t need to use all of those other ones. > > :dubious: That’s exactly what he’d say, of course. (Assuming all the words you used there actually _are_ in his vocabulary…) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31269 "2019-03-17T05:15:17Z")
His speaking at a low level is one of the things many of his lovestruck followers like about him. He speaks “normal”. He’s not “hifalutin’”. He doesn’t use complicated words with subtle meanings, instead hammering the same thumbtacks time and time again with the biggest sledgehammer he can find. He’s a snake oil salesman and they’re the kind of people who buy the oil and who keep on buying the oil because admitting that it’s not curing what ails them would mean admitting they made a mistake. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31270 "2019-03-17T13:08:29Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Here’s the full quote in context: > > “So here’s the thing—it’s so terrible what’s happening,” Trump said when asked by Breitbart News Washington Political Editor Matthew Boyle about how the left is fighting hard. “You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. Okay? **I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad**. But the left plays it cuter and tougher. Like with all the nonsense that they do in Congress … with all this invest[igations]—that’s all they want to do is –you know, they do things that are nasty. Republicans never played this.” > > That’s a fucking threat. Of course it’s a threat. And of course it’s fucking stupid like every other thing Trump does. He thinks the Military and the Police are going to back him up? The people that, ya know support law and order? Good luck with that you asshole. As far as bikers for Trump? “Dude, this is just a weekend thing, I’m a dentist”. I’d like to also recommend a book. - Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson. Hard core bikers are anything but right wing and would, and probably are laughing at the Donald. (I do recommend the book to anyone that may be interested in what the Hell’s Angels or other biker groups in the 60’s where like, Hunter befriended them, and lived it). ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31271 "2019-03-17T13:23:08Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Here’s the full quote in context: > > “So here’s the thing—it’s so terrible what’s happening,” Trump said when asked by Breitbart News Washington Political Editor Matthew Boyle about how the left is fighting hard. “You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. Okay? **I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad**. But the left plays it cuter and tougher. Like with all the nonsense that they do in Congress … with all this invest[igations]—that’s all they want to do is –you know, they do things that are nasty. Republicans never played this.” > > That’s a fucking threat. Well, it worked in Charlottesville, didn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31272 "2019-03-17T15:11:44Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > As far as bikers for Trump? “Dude, this is just a weekend thing, I’m a dentist”. I’d like to also recommend a book. - Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson. Hard core bikers are anything but right wing and would, and probably are laughing at the Donald. > > (I do recommend the book to anyone that may be interested in what the Hell’s Angels or other biker groups in the 60’s where like, Hunter befriended them, and lived it). This article has been posted before, but it is interesting: [This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson.](https://www.thenation.com/article/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/) _In Hell’s Angels, the gonzo journalist wrote about left-behind people motivated only by “an ethic of total retaliation.” Sound familiar?_ > [@](#): > > It has been 50 years since Hunter S. Thompson published the definitive book on motorcycle guys: Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. It grew out of a piece first published in The Nation one year earlier. My grandfather, Carey McWilliams, editor of the magazine from 1955 to 1975, commissioned the piece from Thompson—it was the gonzo journalist’s first big break, and the beginning of a friendship between the two men that would last until my grandfather died in 1980. Because of that family connection, I had long known that Hell’s Angels was a political book. Even so, I was surprised, when I finally picked it up a few years ago, by how prophetic Thompson is and how eerily he anticipates 21st-century American politics. This year, when people asked me what I thought of the election, I kept telling them to read Hell’s Angels. > > Most people read Hell’s Angels for the lurid stories of sex and drugs. But that misses the point entirely. What’s truly shocking about reading the book today is how well Thompson foresaw the retaliatory, right-wing politics that now goes by the name of Trumpism. After following the motorcycle guys around for months, Thompson concluded that the most striking thing about them was not their hedonism but their “ethic of total retaliation” against a technologically advanced and economically changing America in which they felt they’d been counted out and left behind. Thompson saw the appeal of that retaliatory ethic. He claimed that a small part of every human being longs to burn it all down, especially when faced with great and impersonal powers that seem hostile to your very existence. In the United States, a place of ever greater and more impersonal powers, the ethic of total retaliation was likely to catch on. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31273 "2019-03-17T19:04:36Z")
Individual 1 calls for an investigation of Saturday Night Live. [Trump Rails Against SNL, Despite Show Being a Rerun, Calls For FCC 'Collusion' Investigation Into Comedy Show](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-snl-fcc-rerun-collusion-talent-saturday-night-live-twitter-1365677)? ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31274 "2019-03-17T19:10:09Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 calls for an investigation of Saturday Night Live. > [Trump Rails Against SNL, Despite Show Being a Rerun, Calls For FCC 'Collusion' Investigation Into Comedy Show](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-snl-fcc-rerun-collusion-talent-saturday-night-live-twitter-1365677)? Wow. He called for an investigation for “collusion.” ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31275 "2019-03-17T19:12:37Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 calls for an investigation of Saturday Night Live. > [Trump Rails Against SNL, Despite Show Being a Rerun, Calls For FCC 'Collusion' Investigation Into Comedy Show](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-snl-fcc-rerun-collusion-talent-saturday-night-live-twitter-1365677)? So, we need “Fair & Balanced” comedy? Oh, wait - we already have that… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31276 "2019-03-17T19:32:05Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 calls for an investigation of Saturday Night Live. > [Trump Rails Against SNL, Despite Show Being a Rerun, Calls For FCC 'Collusion' Investigation Into Comedy Show](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-snl-fcc-rerun-collusion-talent-saturday-night-live-twitter-1365677)? As I recall, Dana Carvey and SNL were merciless in their lampooning of George H.W. Bush. Bush laughed, and invited Carvey to the White House to have him perform his impression in person. As a person who laughs at himself all of the time, as well as having a very high opinion of me, I think people who can’t laugh at themselves are very small people. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31277 "2019-03-17T20:25:04Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 calls for an investigation of Saturday Night Live. > [Trump Rails Against SNL, Despite Show Being a Rerun, Calls For FCC 'Collusion' Investigation Into Comedy Show](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-snl-fcc-rerun-collusion-talent-saturday-night-live-twitter-1365677)? Every time I think I understand just how truly fucking stupid that guy is, he reaches new depths. What a fucking moron. And of course, his supporters too. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31278 "2019-03-17T20:29:26Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > Wow. He called for an investigation for “collusion.” Colluding with whom? Does he know what the bloody word means or is he showing off to the rubes that he knows a three syllable word? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31279 "2019-03-17T20:31:15Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Every time I think I understand just how truly fucking stupid that guy is, he reaches new depths. What a fucking moron. And of course, his supporters too. New proposed amendment: If SNL is on reruns, the administration must be too. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31280 "2019-03-17T21:03:47Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Colluding with whom? Does he know what the bloody word means or is he showing off to the rubes that he knows a three syllable word? I think you may be stretching the meaning of “knows”. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31281 "2019-03-17T21:19:38Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Colluding with whom? Does he know what the bloody word means or is he showing off to the rubes that he knows a three syllable word? Colluding is easy for him to spell compered to conspiracy. Less syllables too, so he can actually dig the word out of what he calls a brain. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31282 "2019-03-17T21:43:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > As I recall, Dana Carvey and SNL were merciless in their lampooning of George H.W. Bush. Bush laughed, and invited Carvey to the White House to have him perform his impression in person. > > As a person who laughs at himself all of the time, as well as having a very high opinion of me, **I think people who can’t laugh at themselves are very small people**. Yep. I :smack: at least once a day. I may be a game of chess with my wife, or forgetting milk at the store. A nice chuckle, and move on. Finnish the game of chess, and no milk for cereal. Trump can’t imagine being wrong at anything, when in FACT he is wrong at everything. He can rot in prison and he will never understand this simple fact. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31283 "2019-03-17T22:24:01Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > New proposed amendment: > > If SNL is on reruns, the administration must be too. Oh, hell no! That’s what the twit’s hoping for in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/31284 "2019-03-17T22:48:49Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Colluding with whom? Does he know what the bloody word means or is he showing off to the rubes that he knows a three syllable word? Well that’s what people are accusing him of wrt:Russia, he’s just trying to flip it and go “look who the REAL colluders are !”. But he doesn’t understand words, so that classic Karl Rove mind trick becomes a self-own that only makes him look stupid. Now that the dominoes are starting to fall on the investigation, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to work “collusion” into many more of his twitter attacks to try and find one that kinda sticks if you squint and/or wear a red hat. At which point we’ll all get a good workout at our “both sides do it !” game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1563) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1565)