# 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:** 1704
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34065 "2019-07-03T21:21:51Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I really hope the twerp fails to conduct the census. I have the impression from reading the news that he has nothing to do with taking the census; it is mandated by the Constitution. ---
**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:** [July 3, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34066 "2019-07-03T21:26:16Z")
Failing to follow the constitution is minor? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34067 "2019-07-03T21:30:11Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Failing to follow the constitution is minor? It is now. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34068 "2019-07-03T21:38:47Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I have the impression from reading the news that he has nothing to do with taking the census; it is mandated by the Constitution. I’m sure he’ll take it very, very seriously then. :rolleyes: Prolly as seriously as not manipulating the dollar to gain trade advantages… [oh, wait.](https://apnews.com/ae86744181a14bdd918cf6fdbc0522d5) > [@](#): > > President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China and Europe of playing a “big currency manipulation game.” He said the United States should match that effort, a move that directly contradicts official U.S. policy not to manipulate the dollar’s value to gain trade advantages. > > In a tweet, the president said if America doesn’t act, the country will continue “being the dummies who sit back and politely watch as other countries continue to play their games — as they have for so many years.” > > Trump’s own Treasury Department in May found that no country meets the criteria of being labeled a currency manipulator, although the report did put China and eight other countries on a watch list. > [@](#): > > However, after taking office, Trump’s Treasury Department has issued five reports on the subject, required by law every six months. In each report it said no country met the criteria to be labeled a currency manipulator. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34069 "2019-07-03T22:09:46Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Failing to follow the constitution is minor? Not to most of us, but this Senate isn’t going to give a crap. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34070 "2019-07-03T22:23:02Z")
Hold the phone…this just in: **[DOJ Reverses Course on Citizenship Question, Citing Trump’s Orders](https://a.msn.com/r/2/AADNTfD?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare)** > [@](#): > > WASHINGTON — A day after pledging that the 2020 census would not ask respondents about their citizenship, the Justice Department reversed course on Wednesday and said it was hunting for a way to restore the question on orders from President Trump. > > Officials told a federal judge in Maryland that they thought there would be a way to still add the question, despite printing deadlines, and that they would ask the Supreme Court to send the case to district court with instructions to remedy the situation. > … Holy fuck. :smack: Also posted in How Has Prez Pissed You Off thread, 'cause I got confused. ---
**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:** [July 3, 2019, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34071 "2019-07-03T22:28:53Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Hold the phone…this just in: > **[DOJ Reverses Course on Citizenship Question, Citing Trump’s Orders](https://a.msn.com/r/2/AADNTfD?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare)** > Holy fuck. :smack: > Also posted in How Has Prez Pissed You Off thread, 'cause I got confused. Damn, I hope they didn’t read my “on the envelope” idea and decide to run with it. [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21729297#post21729297](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21729297#post21729297) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34072 "2019-07-03T22:42:05Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Damn, I hope they didn’t read my “on the envelope” idea and decide to run with it. > > [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21729297#post21729297](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21729297#post21729297) Ogod… Donnie will LOVE that feature. You better watch tossing out those ideas, Mister! :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34073 "2019-07-03T22:47:22Z")
I don’t know who the person at the printer who finally, reluctantly, said “well, we can delay this by two days, still make the deadline and add the question, but only if…”, but I cannot imagine the shitshow and pressure s/he experienced since oh, say, 10am yesterday. It must have been intense. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34074 "2019-07-03T23:54:03Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I don’t know who the person at the printer who finally, reluctantly, said “well, we can delay this by two days, still make the deadline and add the question, but only if…”, but I cannot imagine the shitshow and pressure s/he experienced since oh, say, 10am yesterday. It must have been intense. I often think along the same lines. As someone who’s spent decades as a corporate drone, I’ve been in a lot of pointless thrashing, running around with your hair on fire and putting it out with a hammer scenarios. I can only imagine the utter chaos that has consumed the Commerce Department ever since this hair-brained idea started going through the courts – and today it just got worse. Probably multiple teams are putting together contingency plans for every possible scenario: with question, without, delayed, on time…I feel sorry for those poor schmucks. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34075 "2019-07-04T00:11:38Z")
Waiting for the Trump administration to order 300,000,000 sticky notes to add the question to the census forms. Oh, and they will need a few pens. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34076 "2019-07-04T00:35:33Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I don’t know who the person at the printer who finally, reluctantly, said “well, we can delay this by two days, still make the deadline and add the question, but only if…”, but I cannot imagine the shitshow and pressure s/he experienced since oh, say, 10am yesterday. It must have been intense. Who says they didn’t want to? trumpistas are everywhere. Maybe someone at the printer is a True Believe and kept shouting “we can make the deadline” because they agree with donny two scoops. ---
**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:** [July 4, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34077 "2019-07-04T01:09:30Z")
Who wants to bet against this? Trump will lose again in court, yet he will order the printer to publish the census questionnaire with the citizenship question. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34078 "2019-07-04T01:20:17Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Who wants to bet against this? Trump will lose again in court, yet he will order the printer to publish the census questionnaire with the citizenship question. Why wouldn’t he? What would be the penalty he would face? Prolly the same as for someone who violates the Hatch Act, right? ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34079 "2019-07-04T01:38:04Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > From the horse’s, er, mouth this morning: > > Yep, there’s not just going to be fireworks, there’s gonna be some doddering old guy rambling on for an hour or so, then fireworks! Well, at least we can say “Happy 4th of July” again. When Obama was president, July only had 3 days. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34080 "2019-07-04T01:42:52Z")
If I hugged a few flags, could I also be hailed a great American patriot? As best I can tell from internet commentary pages, that’s all Trump had to do. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34081 "2019-07-04T02:30:31Z")
[This ruling](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-court/trump-administration-loses-bid-to-lift-bar-on-funds-for-border-wall-idUSKCN1TZ023) should ordinarily have been a foregone conclusion, but under the circumstances, I find myself cheering whenever norms actually prevail. (Reuters) > [@](#): > > A federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to lift an injunction barring the Trump administration from using $2.5 billion intended for the fight against illegal narcotics to build a wall along the southern U.S. border with Mexico. > > The ruling was another setback in President Donald Trump’s effort to construct a border wall, one of his top promises in the 2016 presidential campaign. He pledged at the time that Mexico would pay for it. > > “Congress did not appropriate money to build the border barriers defendants seek to build here,” a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling. > > “Congress presumably decided such construction at this time was not in the public interest. … It is not for us to reach a different conclusion,” the panel said. What’s interesting to me is that the 9th used basically the same reasoning that the SCOTUS used in their gerrymandering ruling. Which hopefully will make it harder for the SCOTUS to depart from such reasoning when this case is inevitably before them. If stare decisis says, “We don’t decide for Congress or the states,” then I can’t think how they could distinguish their role to rule in a different way on this issue. Although with this SCOTUS, who the fuck knows. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34082 "2019-07-04T02:39:28Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > [This ruling](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-court/trump-administration-loses-bid-to-lift-bar-on-funds-for-border-wall-idUSKCN1TZ023) should ordinarily have been a foregone conclusion, but under the circumstances, I find myself cheering whenever norms actually prevail. (Reuters) > > What’s interesting to me is that the 9th used basically the same reasoning that the SCOTUS used in their gerrymandering ruling. Which hopefully will make it harder for the SCOTUS to depart from such reasoning when this case is inevitably before them. If stare decisis says, “We don’t decide for Congress or the states,” then I can’t think how they could distinguish their role to rule in a different way on this issue. > > Although with this SCOTUS, who the fuck knows. Remind me: what’s the penalty for the SCOTUS Justices just doing whatever the hell they want? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34083 "2019-07-04T02:45:48Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Remind me: what’s the penalty for the SCOTUS Justices just doing whatever the hell they want? Nothing. Yet. Let’s see what happens after 2020. ---
**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:** [July 4, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/34084 "2019-07-04T03:29:50Z")
Jul 3, 2019 CEO of a fireworks company went to the White House to ask Individual 1 to stop adding new tariffs on China. “Oh, and here’s $750,000 in fireworks for your Nuremberg Rally.” Individual 1 surprisingly (not) decided to not add new tariffs on China. [https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/july-4th-fireworks-donor-lobbied-president-trump-tariffs/story](https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/july-4th-fireworks-donor-lobbied-president-trump-tariffs/story) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1703) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1705)