# 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:** 1778
**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:** [August 17, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35545 "2019-08-17T14:50:50Z")
A lot of people don’t know that golfing is exercise! You have to get out of the cart, walk ten feet, swing the club, then schlep your way BACK to the cart and climb back in. THEN you have to do it all over again, and if your ball has a bad lie you need to kick it someplace better, and kicking involves different muscle groups. And don’t get me started about the bending over before teeing off. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35546 "2019-08-17T15:52:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I usually read Warren Buffett’s letter to the shareholders and he says that he would invest the cash hoard if he could find something worth buying. Part of the problem is how big Berkshire Hathaway is. Googling, the cash hoard amounts to over $112 billion. (And they’re not the only one. Lots of big companies like Apple, Microsoft and so forth have lots of cash. Collectively a couple trillion.) I suspect that Bershire Hathaway and the other big companies are looking forward to the coming recession, so they can buy up a bunch of smaller companies on the cheap. ---
**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:** [August 17, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35547 "2019-08-17T16:38:06Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I usually read Warren Buffett’s letter to the shareholders and he says that he would invest the cash hoard if he could find something worth buying. Part of the problem is how big Berkshire Hathaway is. Googling, the cash hoard amounts to over $112 billion. (And they’re not the only one. Lots of big companies like Apple, Microsoft and so forth have lots of cash. Collectively a couple trillion.) Great. The TrumpSlump will increase the plutocratic ownership of the planet. That’s greaaaaaaaaat. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35548 "2019-08-17T17:10:49Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I have a vision of a pack of slobbering dogs following the letter carrier down the street to **Ukulele Ike’s** house… With all those clams in the mailbag, it’d probably be slobbering _cats._ ---
**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:** [August 17, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35549 "2019-08-17T17:20:33Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > With all those clams in the mailbag, it’d probably be slobbering _cats._ I dunno. Cats are pretty proud. And clever. They’d probably wait til the dogs brought the mail carrier down, then they’d run the doggies off, and move in on the goodies themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35550 "2019-08-17T18:05:35Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > A lot of people don’t know that golfing is exercise! You have to get out of the cart, walk ten feet, swing the club, then schlep your way BACK to the cart and climb back in. THEN you have to do it all over again, and if your ball has a bad lie you need to kick it someplace better, and kicking involves different muscle groups. And don’t get me started about the bending over before teeing off. Isn’t Trump infamous for driving the cart onto the Green, which you are not supposed to do? ---
**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:** [August 17, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35551 "2019-08-17T19:07:52Z")
IOKIDTDI because he’s famous with better ratings than that loser Ahnold. Isn’t that a funny name, Ahnold? Most people don’t know he’s not from America. No! It’s true! Ahnold Schickelgruber, or whatever his name is, is an immigrant from Australia. We should send him back because of his lousy ratings. Then he can clean up that high crime shithole he came from. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35552 "2019-08-17T19:49:37Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > Isn’t Trump infamous for driving the cart onto the Green, which you are not supposed to do? **Bond** : Remarkable… but what does the club secretary have to say? **Auric Smallfingers** : “Oh, nothing, Mr. Bond… I own the club.” ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35553 "2019-08-17T20:06:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I usually read Warren Buffett’s letter to the shareholders and he says that he would invest the cash hoard if he could find something worth buying. Part of the problem is how big Berkshire Hathaway is. Googling, the cash hoard amounts to over $112 billion. (And they’re not the only one. Lots of big companies like Apple, Microsoft and so forth have lots of cash. Collectively a couple trillion.) Well, he could just buy Greenland. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35554 "2019-08-17T20:32:11Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Holy shit! I’ve known you (online) for 20 years, and I never knew you lived in LYNN! > > Mail me some steamed clams, will you? And fried clams, and clam chowder, and clam fritters, and clam burgers… > > I’ll reciprocate with bagels, knishes, and hot pastrami. I don’t live in Lynn – I’m in the next town over. But I’m really close to the line. Sometimes I’ll ride my bike past the GE plant. I appreciate the offer, but I’m not going to mail you clams in any form, for reasons others have outlined above. And I can get good bagels and pastrami here. It’s not like when I was living in Salt Lake and had to make do with the donut-shaped bread they _thought_ was a bagel (except for that time they had an International Food Festival and someone had real bagels airlifted in from NYC). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35555 "2019-08-18T06:00:13Z")
[quote=“Rick\_Kitchen, post:35531, topic:774070”] Individual 1 judicial nominee Steven Menashi thinks that democracies can only survive if they’re made up of a single ethnicity. [/QUOTE] I don’t know where “Menashi” is from, but I’d be surprised to find out that someone by that lastname would have been considered “white” in 1950s America. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2019, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35556 "2019-08-18T06:41:10Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I don’t know where “Menashi” is from, but I’d be surprised to find out that someone by that lastname would have been considered “white” in 1950s America. My best guess is that he’d be considered white, but also considered Jewish, whether or not there ever were any Jews in his family tree. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35557 "2019-08-18T06:47:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I don’t know where “Menashi” is from, but I’d be surprised to find out that someone by that lastname would have been considered “white” in 1950s America. Indian? [Menashi Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History](https://forebears.io/surnames/menashi) I’m guessing that it’s a corruption of something. Hard to say what the origin is without knowing what the proper spelling of the original version is. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35558 "2019-08-18T07:12:52Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Indian? [Menashi Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History](https://forebears.io/surnames/menashi) > > I’m guessing that it’s a corruption of something. Hard to say what the origin is without knowing what the proper spelling of the original version is. It could simply be a version of “Menashe” (or “Manasseh”, as the English translation has it), one of the tribes of Israel and a fairly common Hebrew name. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35559 "2019-08-18T17:09:08Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Well, he could just buy Greenland. Tweet from Amy Klobuchar: The difference between Donald Trump and Greenland? Greenland is not for sale. > ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35560 "2019-08-18T19:38:49Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Tweet from Amy Klobuchar: > > The difference between Donald Trump and Greenland? Greenland is not for sale. > > [https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1162460121395597312](https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1162460121395597312) I am sad that she got the ‘mean boss’ label (or since this is the Pit, I guess I could say ‘ball-busting bitch’ label) slapped on her to derail her Presidential run. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35561 "2019-08-18T21:59:24Z")
The Director of the National Economic Council under Trump, Larry Kudlow, was on Meet the Press this morning touting the economy. To his credit, Chuck Todd presented him with his spectacularly bad prediction of “no recession” in December 2007. Kudlow admitted he made a mistake then, but claimed he did better once we got into 2008, which turns out not to be true. He has also been spectacularly wrong so many times that there is a veritable cottage industry finding examples (some documented on [his Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Kudlow) and some elsewhere, like [here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/larry-kudlow-may-have-been-more-wrong-about-the-economy-than-anyone-alive/2018/03/14/a98f2292-27ce-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68_story.html) and [here](http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/new-trump-economist-kudlow-has-been-wrong-about-everything.html)). Of course, this record of spectacular failures does not seem to have led him to wonder if his whole economic model is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35562 "2019-08-20T02:47:23Z")
Given that Trump’s re-election chances hinge on the economy: if it continues strong, he has a tiny sliver of a hope of re-election; if we head into recession, he’s going to be buried in a landslide. And given that he has absolutely no scruples and will do anything it takes to help himself…what do you think he will do? I’d say: (a) he’ll fire Fed Chairman Powell and replace him with someone who will cut interest rates, regardless of whether or not they’re needed or even helpful; and (b) come up with another deficit-busting tax cut. ---
**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:** [August 20, 2019, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35563 "2019-08-20T04:16:41Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Given that Trump’s re-election chances hinge on the economy: if it continues strong, he has a tiny sliver of a hope of re-election; if we head into recession, he’s going to be buried in a landslide. And given that he has absolutely no scruples and will do anything it takes to help himself…what do you think he will do? > > I’d say: (a) he’ll fire Fed Chairman Powell and replace him with someone who will cut interest rates, regardless of whether or not they’re needed or even helpful; and **(b) come up with another deficit-busting tax cut**. Look how prescient you are. [Senior White House Officials Eye Tax Cut to Avert Slowdown](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-tax/senior-white-house-officials-eye-tax-cut-to-avert-slowdown-washington-post-idUSKCN1V91VW). (Reuters) > [@](#): > > Senior White House officials are discussing the possibility of a temporary payroll tax cut in an effort to boost the economy in the face of a potential slowdown, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing three people familiar with the discussions. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35564 "2019-08-20T12:07:36Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > …if we head into recession, he’s going to be buried in a landslide. And given that he has absolutely no scruples and will do anything it takes to help himself…what do you think he will do?.. Start a hot war. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1777) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1779)