# 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:** 1897
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37925 "2019-10-18T02:04:21Z")
Gen. Mattis has responded to Trump calling him “the world’s most overrated general.” [NBC News](https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1185003190690955265): > [@](#): > > “I’m not just an overrated general. I’m the most overrated general,” Mattis says. “I’m honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly that sounds pretty good to me.” He added: “And you do have to admit that, between me and Meryl, at least we’ve had some victories.” Zing! ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37926 "2019-10-18T02:29:12Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Nooooo. Not Trump. Tax fraud? The deuce you say. From the ProPublica article: > [@](#): > > Documents obtained by ProPublica show stark differences in how Donald Trump’s businesses reported some expenses, profits and occupancy figures for two Manhattan buildings, giving a lender different figures than they provided to New York City tax authorities. The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender — and less profitable to the officials who set the buildings’ property tax. > **[Never-Before-Seen Trump Tax Documents Show Major Inconsistencies](https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-never-before-seen-trump-tax-documents-show-major-inconsistencies)** > > The president’s businesses made themselves appear more profitable to lenders and less profitable to tax officials. One expert calls the differing numbers “versions of fraud.” In short, two books. One of which must be false, but who knows…maybe both are bullshit. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37927 "2019-10-18T02:40:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > For those interested in reading the article, you don’t need to subscribe. I can read it fine, and I don’t subscribe, but you can also open it in your browser’s private/incognito mode to read it. > [@Aspenglow](#): > > It’s a really long article. You get 3 freebies a month – worth a try? > > Here are a few excerpts: > > That’s as far as I will go. There’s lots more. Thanks to both of you. 🙂 In other news, David Brooks comes out. Welcome back to the fight, David. “If It’s Trump vs. Warren, Then What?” > **[Opinion | If It’s Trump vs. Warren, Then What? (Published 2019)](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/opinion/trump-warren-2020.html)** > > A hard but necessary choice to save the country. > [@](#): > > … > if it comes to Trump vs. Warren in a general election, the only plausible choice is to support Warren. Over the past month Donald Trump has given us fresh reminders of the unique and exceptional ways he corrupts American life. You’re either part of removing that corruption or you are not. When your nation’s political system is in danger, staying home and not voting is not a responsible option. > > Politics is downstream from morality and culture. Warren represents a policy wrong turn, in my view, but policies can be argued about and reversed. Trump represents a much more important and fundamental threat — to the norms, values, standards and soul of this country. > > Last week, Trump all but greenlighted the ethnic cleansing of Kurds without an ounce of remorse. He normalizes dishonesty and valorizes cruelty. His letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reminds us yet again that we have a president whose professional competence is at kindergarten level. Once a nation has lost its heart, mind and soul, it is very hard to get these things back. > > Furthermore, Trump is an unprecedented threat to democratic institutions. Over the past few years, I’ve thought the progressive fears of incipient American fascism were vastly overblown. But, especially over the past month, Trump has worked overtime to validate those fears and to raise the horrifying specter of what he’ll be like if he is given a second term and is vindicated, unhinged and unwell. > … ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37928 "2019-10-18T04:00:41Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Gen. Mattis has responded to Trump calling him “the world’s most overrated general.” > > [NBC News](https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1185003190690955265): > > He added: “And you do have to admit that, between me and Meryl, at least we’ve had some victories.” > > Zing! Now I want a .gif of Meryl & Mattis high fiving. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37929 "2019-10-18T04:04:41Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Gen. Mattis has responded to Trump calling him “the world’s most overrated general.” > > [NBC News](https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1185003190690955265): > > He added: “And you do have to admit that, between me and Meryl, at least we’ve had some victories.” > > Zing! My favourite was when he said “I earned my spurs on the battlefield. He earned his in a letter from a doctor.” ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37930 "2019-10-18T04:24:21Z")
> [@Mr.Greenjeans](#): > > It’ll be fun if the G7 is at Trump’s hotel and he is no longer president. > [@bobot](#): > > That’s quite a unique, optimistic perspective you have there. 🙂 Not as unique and optimistic as mine: It’d be fun if the G7 is at his hotel next year and he’s there in an orange jumpsuit on a work detail assisting the groundskeeping staff… ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37931 "2019-10-18T04:36:23Z")
Alternately: Trump will host the G7 leaders at his hotel, but his ankle monitor won’t let him walk them to their cars afterward. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37932 "2019-10-18T04:39:14Z")
I would think that Chris Christie is one happy motherfucker right about now, possibly the happiest Republican in America. Talk about dodging a bullet! ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37933 "2019-10-18T04:45:00Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > It’s a really long article. You get 3 freebies a month – worth a try? > > Here are a few excerpts: > > That’s as far as I will go. There’s lots more. And I’d love to read it. For some reason, though, the site won’t let my iPhone (on Firefox) access my three free articles. Placing a call to their tech support would be a little crass, don’t you think? On edit: I think I may have already read it. Those excerpts seem familiar. I guess I’ll try again when they do a profile on Felicity Huffman’s prison stint. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37934 "2019-10-18T08:26:16Z")
> **[Trump unhappy with Mulvaney's press briefing in which he acknowledged quid...](https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/17/politics/trump-unhappy-mulvaney-quid-pro-quo/index.html)** > > President Donald Trump is not pleased with acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's press briefing and his acknowledgment on Thursday of a quid pro quo, according to a source close to the President. _White House lawyers and press staff had prepped Mulvaney before his press briefing, which Trump knew and approved of, according to two White House officials, but the focus of the prep session was on questions Mulvaney would face about the selection of Trump National Doral in Florida as the site for the 2020 G7 meeting – not impeachment._ The very definition, well, one of many, of a clusterfuck. Does anyone remember the old Brady Bunch song, Sunshine Day? Every day for me is Schadenfreude Day. This motherfucker is going down slow. Slowly, slowly, slowly the noose will tighten. Trump will end up pacing around the White House late at night but he won’t be talking to pictures of dead Presidents because he won’t know who the fuck they are. Well, except for Obama. I’m not a creative writer, can I ask some of you who are to write the dialog between Trump and Obama? ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37935 "2019-10-18T09:28:36Z")
Earlier in the day I heard Trump say he has saved millions of lives. Just now saw another clip on CNN and it’s now “millions and millions of lives.” I think I see what is going on here in his silly, stupid head. He has intervened into a conflict in the Middle East that would have eventually resulted in some sort of holy war instigated by the Kurds that would have exploded into…oh man…millions and millions of people dying. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37936 "2019-10-18T09:52:21Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the other countries’ legislatures were to enact laws that prohibited their leaders from enriching our so-called president with emoluments of any kind? I can just imagine the tweestorm twitler would send out in mind-numbing frenzy. Fo for it. Post your version of what that jackass would say. Or the other leaders could book themselves into the nearest non-Trump hotel and then just drive over to his place for the actual meetings. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37937 "2019-10-18T12:32:25Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I’m sorry, but it’s not really true. I’ll agree the destruction wasn’t active, but the passive destruction has been incredibly successful. > > This is an article I think everyone should read in [Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-lewis) from way back in September 2017. I remember it because it scared the shit out of me. > > The DOE is in tough shape, too. ☹ Just read Michael Lewis’s book **The Fifth Risk** already. The Vanity Fair articles are all excerpts. > **[The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy - Kindle edition by Lewis, Michael. Politics...](https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Risk-Michael-Lewis-ebook/dp/B07FFCMSCX)** > > The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy - Kindle edition by Lewis, Michael. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Fifth Risk: Undoing... ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37938 "2019-10-18T13:20:59Z")
> [@APB](#): > > Or the other leaders could book themselves into the nearest non-Trump hotel and then just drive over to his place for the actual meetings. “I much prefer a Holiday Inn. And the foods better.” ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37939 "2019-10-18T13:36:29Z")
Did you see how Mick Mulvaney (acting White House Chief of Staff) [admitted in a press conference](https://www.npr.org/2019/10/17/770979659/watch-white-house-holds-now-rare-press-briefing-amid-impeachment-syria-conflicts) yesterday that there was in fact a quid pro quo, in which Trump held up aid to Ukraine to force them to investigate Hunter Biden and his father. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37940 "2019-10-18T13:50:57Z")
And then Don Jr., and the father of Jacob Wohl attacked Hunter Biden on twitter. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37941 "2019-10-18T13:56:12Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Did you see how Mick Mulvaney (acting White House Chief of Staff) [admitted in a press conference](https://www.npr.org/2019/10/17/770979659/watch-white-house-holds-now-rare-press-briefing-amid-impeachment-syria-conflicts) yesterday that there was in fact a quid pro quo, in which Trump held up aid to Ukraine to force them to investigate Hunter Biden and his father. Yeah, but then, like a champion Trumpeteer, he said that what he said wasn’t what he said. That’s like a checkmate in Trumpland. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37942 "2019-10-18T14:53:57Z")
> [@APB](#): > > Or the other leaders could book themselves into the nearest non-Trump hotel and then just drive over to his place for the actual meetings. Do leaders actually have to go? Can they send delegates? Would it be legitimate to send a nice letter (he really likes “nice letters”) in a giant envelope (which he also really, really likes) that says “Our intelligence checked and there’s no way to guarantee security there.\* So we will need to decline. However, we would like to present Miss Mary Elaine George who has just passed her A-Levels and did a stellar job at Model UN. We thought this would be an excellent opportunity to show how our young people will be the future of the world - though they cannot make any decisions in the present. None at all. We’ll use official diplomatic channels for that.” \*true. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37943 "2019-10-18T14:58:27Z")
They don’t _have_ to go - the G7 talks are totally informal for one thing - but generally speaking it’s good for votes when a head of government is seen taking his/her place on The World Stage and hobnobbing with other famous leaders and so forth. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/37944 "2019-10-18T15:01:05Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > “I much prefer a Holiday Inn. And the foods better.” I can’t believe we’re going to invite French and Italian people to our country and let them eat Trump hotel food. “Ze beefsteak is, how you say, very heavily cooked.” “Passa da ketchup.” I hope they have the option of ordering in Cubano sandwiches, _ropa vieja,_ and panfried plantains from selected joints in Miami. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1896) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1898)