# 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:** 1828
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36545 "2019-09-17T16:26:26Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Did you mean an escherlator? Out! ---
**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:** [September 17, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36546 "2019-09-17T16:37:02Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Did you mean an escherlator? You don’t want an Escherlator – you seem to be perpetually going up (or down), but never actually get anywhere. > **[Penrose stairs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs)** > > The Penrose stairs or Penrose steps, also dubbed the impossible staircase, is an impossible object created by Oscar Reutersvärd in 1937 and later independently discovered and made popular by Lionel Penrose and his son Roger Penrose. A variation on the Penrose triangle, it is a two-dimensional depiction of a staircase in which the stairs make four 90-degree turns as they ascend or descend yet form a continuous loop, so that a person could climb them forever and never get any higher. The "continuou... Come to think of it, trapping Trump on one would be a pretty good move. ---
**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 17, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36547 "2019-09-17T16:37:07Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Did you mean an escherlator? [!!!](https://imgur.com/HE68MhD) ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36548 "2019-09-17T17:19:28Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Out! Ah but using what door? all seem to lead to same place, often defying all sense… ---
**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 17, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36549 "2019-09-17T17:34:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You don’t want an Escherlator – you seem to be perpetually going up (or down), but never actually get anywhere. > > [Penrose stairs - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs) > > Come to think of it, trapping Trump on one would be a pretty good move. You could trap Trump on a normal escalator just by cutting the power. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36550 "2019-09-17T17:53:38Z")
Guys, this isn’t the name-calling or make-fun-of-how-dumb-Trump-is thread. Are there really no clusterfucks to discuss? How about Sean Spicer, who “just ruined neon green for everyone”? And was accused of wearing that outfit at the behest of Obama or The Deep State. Or Ben Rhodes [calling Trump’s Foreign Policy As ‘A Saudi Wish List’](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ben-rhodes-obama-donald-trump-saudi_n_5d80c6e1e4b077dcbd645b35)? ---
**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 17, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36551 "2019-09-17T18:05:47Z")
Well, there was last night’s New Mexico rally. Will this do? **[Fact Check: Trump makes at least 26 false claims at New Mexico rally](https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/17/politics/fact-check-trump-makes-at-least-26-false-claims-at-new-mexico-rally/index.html)** > [@](#): > > (CNN)President Donald Trump spoke for 95 minutes at a campaign rally in New Mexico on Monday night, among the longest speeches he’s given as President. > We’re still working through the long transcript, but we know he made at least 26 false claims – most of them ones he’s said before in recent months. We’ll update as we find more false claims. > Here’s the list so far: > > ``` > [ul] > > ``` > > [li]Trump repeated his claim that a “Google executive,” someone who “worked at Google,” reported that Google bias may have cost Trump up to 10 million votes in the 2016 election. That flawed study (which we fact-checked last month) was conducted by a psychologist, not a Google employee or executive.[/li][li] Trump said Venezuela was “one of the wealthiest countries in the world” 15 years ago, when it wasn’t. Venezuela was 67th in the world in GDP per capita in 2004.[/li][li] He boasted that he was the one who got the Veterans Choice health care program passed, saying, “They’ve tried to get that for 45 years. They haven’t been able to get it. But I’m good at getting things.” The program was created in 2014 in a bill signed by President Barack Obama.[/li][li] He said of his USMCA trade agreement, “Unions love it.” The agreement is generally opposed in its current form by major US unions, who have demanded changes to the text; the president of the AFL-CIO federation says it will be a “disaster for workers” if it is not amended.[/li][li] He said, “They wanted a wall in San Diego – good mayor in San Diego, by the way. They wanted a wall.” There is no apparent basis for this repeated claim; even that mayor, Republican Kevin Faulconer, opposes the wall.[/li][li] He said the Democrats have an agenda of “open borders.” Even Democratic presidential candidates who advocate the decriminalization of the act of illegally entering the country, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, do not support completely unrestricted migration, as Trump suggests.[/li][li] Trump said, “We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. The Republicans will always do that.” This promise has already proven false. Trump and Republicans, who have tried to pass bills that would have weakened protections for people with pre-existing conditions, are now trying to get the courts to declare Obamacare void, without a plan to replace those pre-existing protections if their lawsuit succeeds.[/li][li] He said, “We eliminated the unfair estate tax or death tax.” His tax law raised the threshold for the tax, so that fewer people now have to pay it, but did not eliminate it entirely.[/li][li] He said North Carolina congressional candidate Dan Bishop, who won a special election last week, was down “17 points” before Trump got involved. There is no apparent basis for this number; some polls did have Bishop down, but in the single digits.[/li][li] He said another successful North Carolina Republican candidate, Greg Murphy, had been up only a “couple points” before his special election. Murphy was running in a district Trump won by 24 in 2016; polls had put him up by double-digits.[/li][li] He said the Mueller investigation cost “$40 million.” The final total was $32 million, and the government is expected to recoup about $17 million from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a result of Mueller’s convictions.[/li][li] He said China is “eating the tariffs” he has imposed on imports of Chinese products. A bevy of economic studies has found that Americans are bearing the overwhelming majority of the tariff costs, and Americans make the actual tariff payments.[/li][li] He said China is having its worst economic year in “57 years.” China’s second-quarter growth rate was the worst in 27 years. Trump has repeatedly made clear that he knows that this is the reported figure, but he has added additional years for no apparent reason.[/li][li] He said the US has never previously received “10 cents” from China, only unemployment, job losses and “pencils.” The US generated billions per year in revenue from tariffs on China – again, paid by Americans – before Trump took office. The US imported $540 billion from China in 2018; the top categories were electrical machinery ($152 billion), machinery ($117 billion), furniture and bedding ($35 billion), toys and sports equipment ($27 billion), and plastics ($19 billion), according to the US government’s trade website.[/li][li] He said his border wall is being built “fast.” As of the end of August, zero additional miles had been built during Trump’s presidency; 60 miles of replacement barriers had been built. (Trump has argued that these replacement projects should count as his wall.)[/li][li] He said human trafficking victims do not come through legal ports of entry, only through “the desert areas” and “open” parts of the border. Experts on US trafficking say a large percentage of victims come through legal ports; according to the International Organization for Migration, in “the last ten years, almost 80% of journeys undertaken by victims trafficked internationally cross through official border points, such as airports and land border control points.”[/li][li] Speaking about energy, Trump said, “We’re independent … And we are now a net exporter of energy.” The US government Energy Information Administration predicts the US will become a net exporter of energy next year, but it hasn’t happened yet.[/li][li] He said he had ended the Obama administration’s “war on American energy” and that “the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world.” The US became the number one producer of oil and gas under Obama in 2012. It is crude oil in particular in which it became number one under Trump.[/li][li] He said Asian American unemployment numbers are the best in history. The unemployment rate for Asian Americans did briefly fall to a record low under Trump, but it is now slightly higher than it was in Obama’s last month in office.[/li][li] He said the unemployment numbers for women are the best in “71 years.” This was his usual slight exaggeration. The rate this summer has been the lowest since 1953, 66 years ago.[/li][li] He called unfavorable polls “suppression polls” designed to deflate his supporters. There is simply no basis for this claim.[/li][li] He said the US has the “cleanest air that we’ve ever had in this country.” By several measures, US air was cleaner under Obama than it’s been under Trump. Three of the six types of pollutants identified by the Clean Air Act as toxic to human health were more prevalent in the air as of 2018 than they were before Trump took office, according to Environmental Protection Agency data. Additionally, there were more “unhealthy air days” for sensitive groups in 2018 than in 2016.[/li][li] Trump said Obama left him “138” judicial vacancies to fill. According to Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who tracks judicial appointments, there were 103 vacancies on district and appeals courts on January 1, 2017, just before Trump took office, plus one vacancy on the Supreme Court. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the confirmation of many of Obama’s judicial nominees late in his term.[/li][li] He said that, before the 2016 election, Cubans in Miami “gave me the Bay of Pigs award. Can you imagine, right? The Bay of Pigs award.” Trump got an endorsement from the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association, not an award. The endorsement was unprecedented from the association, so Trump could fairly boast about it. But still, an award and an endorsement are different things. (Trump claimed in August to have received an award from the Log Cabin Republicans, which told CNN it gave him an endorsement but not an award.)[/li][li] He suggested, appearing to be joking at least in part, that the Democrats’ Green New Deal proposal would require people to have no more than “a single car,” and would prohibit people from driving “more than 162 miles.” The Green New Deal resolution does not include any restrictions on the number of cars people can own or how far they can drive.[/li][li] He said he calls the Democratic Party the “Democrat Party” not only because “Democrat” sounds worse than “Democratic” but because “that’s their name, the Democrat Party”; he advised the party to change its name to the Democratic Party, since he would then call them that. The party is already named the Democratic Party. We realize this is a strange-sounding fact check, but Trump has repeatedly insisted that the actual name is the Democrat Party.[/li]… > [/ul] The man spoke for 95 minutes and only 26 lies-- that’s a lie every 3.6 minutes. He’s slipping. ---
**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 17, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36552 "2019-09-17T18:13:29Z")
Goddamn. that’s a lotta bullshit in one speech. Republicans don’t fuck around with their bullshit, they are bullshit shoveling motherfuckers. And every sad Trump voting fool in that audience believed that bullshit. ETA This is the sign of a smart Trump voter: “I don’t believe _all_ of his bullshit!” ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36553 "2019-09-17T18:24:21Z")
Damn, that’s scary. I take it back; can we go back to calling the man a CheetoDoodyHead? He sounds more harmless that way. ---
**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 17, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36554 "2019-09-17T18:30:10Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Goddamn. that’s a lotta bullshit in one speech. Republicans don’t fuck around with their bullshit, they are bullshit shoveling motherfuckers. … It’s pretty impressive. Like those people who build ginormous houses out of garbage and found objects. The Former President\* has built an entire administration out of garbage, found objects, crap, dogshit, and the best lies any president has ever told. \*Due to widespread disdain and scorn, and the recognition that things do run their course, I have decided to stop referring to himself as “thump” and will now and henceforth refer to him as The Former President or Former President Trump (if clarification is warranted). If I ever have occasion to refer to the actual former president, i.e., Obama, I will use his name. I will call him _Former President Trump_ until it becomes reality. Visualization, people… visualization. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36555 "2019-09-17T18:38:05Z")
Lewandowski is testifying before Congress, but you don’t have to watch. The take home message is that he is going to continue to obstruct and that the Democrats are so very bad at this. ---
**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:** [September 17, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36556 "2019-09-17T19:18:09Z")
Individual 1, with his usual lack of empathy: “Cokie Roberts ‘never treated me nicely’ but ‘was a professional’” > **[Trump: Cokie Roberts ‘never treated me nicely’ but ‘was a professional’](https://thehill.com/homenews/media/461786-trump-cokie-roberts-never-treated-me-nicely-but-was-a-professional/)** > > President Trump said pioneering journalist Cokie Roberts, who died Tuesday at the age of 75, “never treated me nicely” but praised her as “a professional.”“I never met her. She never treated … ---
**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:** [September 17, 2019, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36557 "2019-09-17T19:21:44Z")
Individual 1 on why we will be backing Saudi Arabia up if there’s a war with Iran: “Saudi Arabia pays cash.” > **[Trump’s weird ideas on the US-Saudi relationship, sort of explained](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/17/20868358/donald-trump-saudi-money)** > > "Saudi Arabia pays cash." ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36558 "2019-09-17T19:55:34Z")
I think it was on The Daily Show, Trevor Noah pointed out that Trump’s rationale for backing Saudi Arabia is because it’s a big customer for American military weapons. So, Trevor Noah asked, why don’t they use those weapons themselves, to fight this battle? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36559 "2019-09-17T20:09:38Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > ETA This is the sign of a smart Trump voter: “I don’t believe _all_ of his bullshit!” That’s a scary thought; that a _smart_ Trump voter implies, “I don’t believe everything he says but I believe some/most of it.” Of course, the rest of Trump voters say, “President Donald J. Trump, hallowed be His name and peace be upon Him, said it, so I believe it, and that settles it.” ---
**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:** [September 17, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36560 "2019-09-17T20:57:49Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > It’s pretty impressive. Like those people who build ginormous houses out of garbage and found objects. The Former President\* has built an entire administration out of garbage, found objects, crap, dogshit, and the best lies any president has ever told. > > \*Due to widespread disdain and scorn, and the recognition that things do run their course, I have decided to stop referring to himself as “thump” and will now and henceforth refer to him as The Former President or Former President Trump (if clarification is warranted). If I ever have occasion to refer to the actual former president, i.e., Obama, I will use his name. I will call him _Former President Trump_ until it becomes reality. Visualization, people… visualization. What about calling the tan turd “the fake president”? > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 on why we will be backing Saudi Arabia up if there’s a war with Iran: > “Saudi Arabia pays cash.” > [Donald Trump and Saudi money, explained - Vox](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/17/20868358/donald-trump-saudi-money) Unlike Trump himself, who simply does not pay. > [@Spoons](#): > > That’s a scary thought; that a _smart_ Trump voter implies, “I don’t believe everything he says but I believe some/most of it.” > > Of course, the rest of Trump voters say, “President Donald J. Trump, hallowed be His name and peace be upon Him, said it, so I believe it, and that settles it.” It’s tough to think rationally while ejaculating. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36561 "2019-09-17T21:00:20Z")
> [@digs](#): > > How about Sean Spicer, who “just ruined neon green for everyone”? And was accused of wearing that outfit at the behest of Obama or The Deep State. > Or Ben Rhodes [calling Trump’s Foreign Policy As ‘A Saudi Wish List’](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ben-rhodes-obama-donald-trump-saudi_n_5d80c6e1e4b077dcbd645b35)? It got better. [Spicer’s low score is because the judges are godless hethurns.](https://ew.com/tv/2019/09/17/sean-spicer-tweet-dwts-judges-christ/) ---
**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 17, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36562 "2019-09-17T21:20:11Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > What about calling the tan turd “the fake president”?.. 'Cause he’d still be president. I can wholeheartedly endorse “the former fake president,” however. ---
**Author:** ![kirkrapine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@kirkrapine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirkrapine)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36563 "2019-09-17T21:30:49Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > The Secret Service wants jet skis so they can protect the Trumps because “The First Family is very active in water sports.” Yes, they actually said that. > I don’t think jet skis can protect him from Russian prostitutes. > [Secret Service Wants Jet Skis to Protect Trumps: 'The First Family is Very Active in Water Sports'](https://www.newsweek.com/secret-service-wants-jet-skis-protect-trump-family-1459477) My guess is, the pee thing is real, but not because Trump has a fetish for it – he just wanted to defile the bed Obama slept in. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/36564 "2019-09-17T22:03:39Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Well, there was last night’s New Mexico rally. Will this do? > > **[Fact Check: Trump makes at least 26 false claims at New Mexico rally](https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/17/politics/fact-check-trump-makes-at-least-26-false-claims-at-new-mexico-rally/index.html)** > The man spoke for 95 minutes and only 26 lies-- that’s a lie every 3.6 minutes. He’s slipping. I didn’t see the speech and have no intention of seeing it, but I’ll bet he didn’t speak anywhere near 95 minutes. My guess is he spoke for maybe 45 minutes and the rest of the time was MAGAt cheering. That means one lie every 1.73 minutes. He’s still slipping by not by as much as it might appear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1827) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1829)