# 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:** 1814
**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:** [September 5, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36265 "2019-09-05T20:32:39Z")
Why is Pence being sent on these junkets? Does Donnie REALLY want to play golf all that much? Is he incapacitated in some way that he doesn’t want exposed to the whole world on an international trip? Or are the Pubbies grooming Pence to take over the presidency? ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36266 "2019-09-05T20:35:53Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > While President Sharpie was watching the Hurricane menacing Alabama, Vice President Pence made a couple European visits that…could have gone better. > > Ireland: The Veep went with the party line and backed Boris Johnson on Brexit; the Irish were not amused. [The Irish Times view on Mike Pence’s visit to Ireland: that didn’t go very well – The Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-on-mike-pence-s-visit-to-ireland-that-didn-t-go-very-well-1.4007912) Or, to put it another way: [Mike Pence accused of humiliating hosts in Ireland: ‘He shat on the carpet’](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/05/mike-pence-ireland-shat-on-the-carpet) > [@](#): > > But Lord struck the most telling blow. > > She described the impact of the Pence visit on Ireland as “like pulling out all the stops for a much-anticipated visitor to your home and thinking it has been a great success until somebody discovers he shat on the new carpet in the spare room, the one you bought specially for him”. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36267 "2019-09-05T20:41:54Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Why is Pence being sent on these junkets? Does Donnie REALLY want to play golf all that much? Is he incapacitated in some way that he doesn’t want exposed to the whole world on an international trip? Or are the Pubbies grooming Pence to take over the presidency? Trump doesn’t want to be in a room where people aren’t singing his praises. Much less people who despise him. ---
**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:** [September 5, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36268 "2019-09-05T21:55:33Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > To say this implies you can read the minds of the protesters. Can you not imagine another reason why some might not want the statues taken down? Not the least of which may be not wanting a bunch of “bleeding-heart, socialist, America-hating liberals” coming in and telling us what we can and cannot do. I think the arguments for taking down the statues are strong, as do you. But you cannot impart your motivations and reasoning on others like that. Maybe some of them are racist, but it is by no means pure and simple that they are. As noted by the Right before, the KKK was founded by members of the Democratic party. Many of whom are represented via these statues. **My recommendation: Piss off us libs by removing those statues dedicated to our Founding Father Democrats. That’ll do it!** And, yes, I can read minds. It’s like this: 1. The statues are of traitors, so their descendants are not celebrating America. 2. The statues are of people who took arms against America, so their descendants are not celebrating the American military. 3. The statues are of people in the pose of, and at the ages they were, when they were traitors. So statue supporters can’t merely say “it’s Marse Robert!” No, it’s Marse Robert when he was committing treason and killing Americans. 4. It can’t be that they are celebrating military greatness, for: 4.a. The South _lost_ 4.b. We don’t have statues of other military leaders who took up arms against the United States, excepting Native Americans. 4.c. We _definitely_ don’t have statues of people who took up arms against the United States and _lost_. 1. No, it’s because the statue supporters are celebrating a time when their ancestors… genetic or ideological… rebelled against the United States to keep an economic system which was based on the ownership of… not just people… but black people. So, yes: Racists. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36269 "2019-09-06T00:08:30Z")
Trump still obsessing. At the bottom of the story it says he saw something on Sunday that said the southeast tip of Alabama might get some tropical storm type winds. I looked it up and that’s up to 74 mph. Category 5 winds are 157 mph or above. I hope he keeps up with this, making himself look even more silly and stupid. > **[Trump called Fox News correspondent into Oval Office to argue he wasn't wrong...](https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/05/politics/donald-trump-alabama-fox-news-white-house/index.html)** > > Fox News senior White House correspondent John Roberts had just finished his 3 p.m. live shot on Thursday when President Donald Trump beckoned him into the Oval Office. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36270 "2019-09-06T00:21:04Z")
> [@Mike\_Mabes](#): > > … I hope he keeps up with this, … I hope he has a fucking heart attack. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36271 "2019-09-06T00:38:40Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Not to derail the thread, but as a historian, an aesthete, and an admirer of large, scary statues, I don’t want to see these monstrosities melted down into tea kettles. Can’t we move them out of town squares and into a bunch of “memorial parks,” like the Hungarians did? We could hang big signs saying “these guys were a buncha assholes, but their descendants could afford to hire top sculptors.” > > [Memento Park - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_Park) > > \*\*Gutzon Borglum’s monument to the North Carolina Confederates in Gettysburg is at least as fine a sculpture group as the Iwo Jima memorial in Arlington. > \*\* > [North Carolina State Monument (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_State_Monument_(Gettysburg,_Pennsylvania)) (bolding mine) And _Birth of a Nation_ (the original) invented a new art form that changed the world. Can you find it at an arthouse, RedBox, or online anywhere this side of 8chan? ---
**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:** [September 6, 2019, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36272 "2019-09-06T00:44:36Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > This may very well be true. I have no idea. But the ones who put up the statues were not there. At least I assume they are all dead. 🙂 Anyway, this is not relevant what I’ve said here. You are correct, the long dead female KKK were not there, the young fresh male KKK were. Dead KKK are bad? Living KKK are good? Are you sure that’s the position and argument that you want to take? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36273 "2019-09-06T01:00:50Z")
What I’d really like to see is somebody giving the “but it’s about _history_” defenders of Confederate statuary a good trolling by erecting a _proper and honest_ monument to the [Battle of Liberty Place](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Liberty_Place) in general and General Longstreet for his role therein in particular. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2019, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36274 "2019-09-06T01:01:21Z")
> [@HelenGawn](#): > > (bolding mine) > > And _Birth of a Nation_ (the original) invented a new art form that changed the world. Can you find it at an arthouse, RedBox, or online anywhere this side of 8chan? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ebtiJH3EOHo/maxresdefault.jpg "The Birth of a Nation - Full Movie - (1915) HD - The Masterpiece of Racist Cinema") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebtiJH3EOHo) ---
**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:** [September 6, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36275 "2019-09-06T01:11:52Z")
> [@HelenGawn](#): > > And _Birth of a Nation_ (the original) invented a new art form that changed the world. Can you find it at an arthouse, RedBox, or online anywhere this side of 8chan? Nah. The Italians beat Griffith by a full year with **Cabiria.** Which was _also_ the first movie screened at the White House…urban legend says **Birth of a Nation** was because they showed that INSIDE ( **Cabiria** was shown out on the lawn) and because it fits better with Woodrow “History written in lightning!” Wilson’s gross racist persona. > **[Cabiria](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabiria)** > > Cabiria is a 1914 Italian epic silent film, directed by Giovanni Pastrone and shot in Turin. The film is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War (218–202 BC). It follows a melodramatic main plot about an abducted little girl, Cabiria, and features an eruption of Mount Etna, heinous religious rituals in Carthage, the alpine trek of Hannibal, Archimedes' defeat of the Roman fleet at the Siege of Syracuse and Scipio maneuvering in North Africa. Apart from... Check it out — it’ll snap yer stix. AND they got noted poet/proto-Fascist aesthete sex-addict cocaine-loving weirdo Gabrielle d’Annunzio to write the titles! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36276 "2019-09-06T02:20:11Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > I hope he has a fucking heart attack. Gotta have a heart first. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36277 "2019-09-06T02:48:15Z")
> [@Mike\_Mabes](#): > > Trump still obsessing. At the bottom of the story it says he saw something on Sunday that said the southeast tip of Alabama might get some tropical storm type winds. I looked it up and that’s up to 74 mph. Category 5 winds are 157 mph or above. I hope he keeps up with this, making himself look even more silly and stupid. > > [https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/05/politics/donald-trump-alabama-fox-news-white-house/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/05/politics/donald-trump-alabama-fox-news-white-house/index.html) Just wait until he starts going on about the thousands of muslims cheering the destruction of the Carolinas by Dorian. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36278 "2019-09-06T02:58:23Z")
At this point I half-expect him to “hear by” order Birmingham razed to the ground in order to prove he was right. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36279 "2019-09-06T04:26:06Z")
In the years after Trump, are Republicans just going to turn around and distance themselves from him and act like all this never happened? Are they going to try to just regain the mantle of family values and free trade as if they never supported Trump? I mean, assuming he’s still alive, Trump will still exist and will still have access to Twitter, so any Republican who tries to distance themselves will still find themselves on the angry end of tweets which will rile up the Trump party. It’s not like they can just wait this out and forget about it, is it? ---
**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:** [September 6, 2019, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36280 "2019-09-06T05:04:40Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > In the years after Trump, are Republicans just going to turn around and distance themselves from him and act like all this never happened? Are they going to try to just regain the mantle of family values and free trade as if they never supported Trump? I mean, assuming he’s still alive, Trump will still exist and will still have access to Twitter, so any Republican who tries to distance themselves will still find themselves on the angry end of tweets which will rile up the Trump party. It’s not like they can just wait this out and forget about it, is it? I think you underestimate the capacity for denial that human beings can manifest. Of course they’ll try and just act like Trump never happened. They’ll gloss over it while being interviewed by Ivanka, ffs. You think people like Moscow Mitch and his ilk have any kind of shame or ethics or reflective capacity that would prevent this? Really? Why? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36281 "2019-09-06T05:23:26Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > In the years after Trump, are Republicans just going to turn around and distance themselves from him and act like all this never happened? Probably. Look how they distanced themselves from George W. Bush, for example. In late 2002, snarling conservatives were calling me a “traitor” for holding up a NO WAR ON IRAQ sign at protest marches, and calling for the Dixie Chicks to be jailed or worse for speaking disparagingly of the President at a concert. And now they seem to regard the Iraq War as just some generic fuckup of “government” that they themselves aren’t in the least responsible for. If they blame any particular politician for it, it’s probably Hillary Clinton. Likewise, the disastrous 2008 recession was enough—barely—to give them second thoughts about voting for another Republican this time, but not enough to cause them to reexamine Republican policies and positions and ask themselves if this was what they really wanted. They’re disgruntled enough with Bush II as an overall “loser” to leave him stagnating in obscurity, but not enough to actually repudiate their support for him. If they blame any particular politician for the 2008 recession, it’s probably Obama. > [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > It’s not like they can just wait this out and forget about it, is it? Sure, why not? They’ve forgotten about Bush, haven’t they? My tentative speculation is that maybe the Trump Presidency is just the logical consequence of the Republican Party’s recognizing that their goal of creating a society that’s optimized for wealthy elites is detrimental to the wellbeing of most everybody else, so they need a way to disarm the opposition of most everybody else (or at least a sufficient chunk of their voters). They tried with Reagan and George W. Bush the idea of having a charismatic Chief Exec who could persuade the public that they actually **supported** Republican policy because they thought it would be beneficial for them. But even Republican voters are finding that harder to swallow these days. With Trump, the GOP is trying the experiment of completely divorcing policy positions from partisan rhetoric. If they can get their base riled up about anything, no matter how absurd—Mexico paying for a wall. anti-Trump “witch hunts”, “Fake News” pointing out when Trump lies, whatever—then it won’t really matter to them what the Republicans are actually **doing**. It’s a hell of a lot easier to just get people mad about some imaginary grudge than to give them a persuasive rationale why they should support, say, massive tax cuts for the wealthy that will swell the deficit. This way they don’t have to explain anything: just throw the fans a slab of resentment from the Sulkmeister about some supposed unfairness and they’ll hang tight for Team MAGA without knowing or caring anything about its real priorities or intentions. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36282 "2019-09-06T06:49:50Z")
I’m too tired right now to find the link, but there was an article today that there are about a dozen Republican congressmen or senators who are not going to run again. They just don’t want to deal with Trump, or maybe they think they will lose in the next election,or both. I think there will be more. There is just no upside for Trump, things are not going to get any better for him. I don’t know the districts these people are in, maybe whoever runs in their place will win. But I’m having more hope of the Democrats taking back the Senate. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36283 "2019-09-06T06:50:40Z")
Stephen Colbert has produced some great mini-documentaries on our current President, but [this one is especially informative and entertaining.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW1sR6mlrhk) ETA: I hope someone reposts this link, or other factual news about Trump, in GD or Elections so we can get views from the 38% and keep the discussion fair and balanced. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36284 "2019-09-06T08:18:59Z")
But any attempt to distance themselves will be met with vitriol from Trump and his supporters. They can’t, even after his presidency, piss him off. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1813) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1815)