# 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:** 1935
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38685 "2019-11-11T16:20:32Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Isn’t that kind of crap prohibited under gambling laws? I mean, it looks like there wasn’t a “no [del]purchase[/del] donation required” clause. Two questions: 1. What departments would be in charge of investigating this? 2. Would the heads of those departments happen to be Trump appointees? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38686 "2019-11-11T16:23:50Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Isn’t that kind of crap prohibited under gambling laws? I mean, it looks like there wasn’t a “no [del]purchase[/del] donation required” clause. Dinner with Trump would have to be a thing of value for gambling laws to be implicated. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_McQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Steve\_McQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_McQwark)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38687 "2019-11-11T16:43:05Z")
The Democratic National Committee should run a fundraising campaign promising that winners(1) will _never_ have to have dinner with President Trump. (1) We’re all winners if Trump is defeated next year. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38688 "2019-11-11T17:18:50Z")
> [@Steve\_McQwark](#): > > The Democratic National Committee should run a fundraising campaign promising that winners(1) will _never_ have to have dinner with President Trump. I would donate to that (well, assuming I hadn’t reflexively already thrown out/deleted it). But assuming that I actually saw or read the promotion, they would get a campaign contribution out of me for that. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38689 "2019-11-11T17:40:58Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > He’s going to be there today (Nov 11 2019), Veteran’s Day. He’ll be attending the NYC 100th anniversary Veteran’s Day parade. In the process he’ll be breaking tradition, not attending the ceremonies at Arlington (Pence will be there). I’ll be reading about as it’s covered. So far I’ve only heard he’s been riding past skyscrapers with enormous IMPEACH and CONVICT signs spread across the windows. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38690 "2019-11-11T17:42:03Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Dinner with Trump would have to be a thing of value for gambling laws to be implicated. 🆒 Can you imagine having to watch the guy eat? I bet he chews with his mouth open. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38691 "2019-11-11T17:42:33Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > Everything Trump touches dies. That’s not true. Stormy Daniels isn’t dead. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38692 "2019-11-11T18:09:45Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > There are 197 Republicans in the House. > > Last night, Representative Peter King (R-NY) announced he is retiring, making him the 20th House Republican to announce their retirement in the past year, pushing the share of Republicans tired of the shitshow/convinced they’re going to lose their seats, to 10% of their House representation. > > [https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/11/politics/peter-king-retiring-congress/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/11/politics/peter-king-retiring-congress/index.html) They mentioned that on the news this morning. Brightened up my Monday considerably, which isn’t an easy thing to do. He always was such a shit-show that I didn’t even want to shop in any stores in his district. The only thing he had going for him (small consolation) was that he was surrounded by even bigger shit-shows, but dammit, he was a local(ish) shit-show and the smell kept wafting over here. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38693 "2019-11-11T18:18:55Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I’ll be reading about as it’s covered. So far I’ve only heard he’s been riding past skyscrapers with enormous IMPEACH and CONVICT signs spread across the windows. Brilliant. I hope there are tons of pictures all over every newsite and social media site in existence, and that his angry orange face is very visible. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38694 "2019-11-11T18:44:51Z")
So the Anonymous guy in the White House is going to publish a book. And the Justice Department is telling him now: > **[DOJ warns anonymous author: Do not release book | CNN Business](https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2019/11/04/doj-warns-anonymous-author-book-stelter-ath-vpx.cnn?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion)** > > The Justice Department is telling the publisher of “The Warning,” an anonymous tell-all book on the Trump White House, that the writer may be violating non-disclosure agreements with the book. CNN’s Brian Stelter reports. > [@](#): > > The Justice Department is telling the publisher of “The Warning,” an anonymous tell-all book on the Trump White House, that the writer may be violating non-disclosure agreements with the book. But: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-otc-nda/trump-ndas-cant-silence-ex-white-house-officials-legal-experts-idUSKBN1GV2UT](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-otc-nda/trump-ndas-cant-silence-ex-white-house-officials-legal-experts-idUSKBN1GV2UT) > [@](#): > > March 19, 2018 (2 years ago) > > Trump NDAs can’t silence ex-White House officials: legal experts > > (Reuters) - In a provocative column Sunday night, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration required senior White House officials to sign agreements forbidding them to disclose any confidential information about their work – not just during their time in office but even after they leave the White House. > > … > > Under case law from the federal appellate courts, including the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1972’s U.S. v. Marchetti and the D.C. Circuit in 1983’s McGehee v. Casey, ex-employees have a First Amendment right to disclose non-classified information. > > “The government has no legitimate interest in censoring unclassified materials,” the D.C. Circuit wrote in McGehee, which involved an ex-CIA agent protesting the agency’s censorship of his manuscript after he submitted the work for pre-publication review. > > McGehee’s employment agreement, the court said, “does not extend to unclassified materials or to information obtained from public sources. The government may not censor such material, ‘contractually or otherwise.’” (The D.C. Circuit was quoting from the 4th Circuit’s Marchetti decision in its reference to McGehee’s contract with the CIA.) > > Those appellate rulings would be a big First Amendment obstacle were the Trump administration to attempt to enforce a non-disclosure agreement that barred former White House officials from revealing non-classified information. > > And there’s an additional snag once Trump leaves office, according to Florida professor Fenster. Enforcement of any NDA would be up to the U.S. government, not to President Trump once he is a private citizen. A future president may not want to commit administration resources to policing former Trump officials. > > “You could understand how someone like Donald Trump, who had never been in government … would come into government and want to do this,” said Fenster. “But it’s just not going to happen.” Is the Justice Department becoming the Injustice one? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38695 "2019-11-11T18:46:12Z")
_My Dinner with Don J._ (2019) An increasingly uncomfortable contest winner endures a two-hour ranting monologue by his dinner companion in this fart-house cinema classic set entirely in a Palm Beach Burger King. Adapted from a tweet, this comedy-horror film is the first full-length feature from director James O’Keefe. Rated PG-13 for gobbledygook, drug use and infantile situations. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38696 "2019-11-11T19:15:14Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Is the Justice Department becoming the Injustice one? Is that even a question? I would argue it’s been sliding all my life (\> 1/2 century) regardless of political party and had been steadily accelerating the entire time, but this administration has truly put the _pedal to the metal_. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2019, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38697 "2019-11-11T19:22:25Z")
Donnie Junior was booed and heckled off the stage _by conservatives_ at a book tour stop at UCLA. > **[Radical Activists Hijacked Donald Trump Jr.'s Talk at UCLA. But They Weren't...](https://reason.com/2019/11/11/donald-trump-jr-ucla-book-student-silence/)** > > Campus conservatism must take the threat of the far right seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38698 "2019-11-11T19:30:49Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Donnie Junior was booed and heckled off the stage _by conservatives_ at a book tour stop at UCLA. > > [Radical Activists Hijacked Donald Trump Jr.'s Talk at UCLA. But They Weren't Leftists.](https://reason.com/2019/11/11/donald-trump-jr-ucla-book-student-silence/) There’s a pattern here. Jr. won’t answer any questions, he will only spout. Lindsay Graham won’t read the impeachment testimony transcripts, while insisting “there’s nothing there.” Pubbies everywhere insist tax cuts for the wealthy pay for themselves, despite the evidence. And if there is an actual case for the assertion that climate change is a hoax, I have never seen it. False bare assertions: the Republican way. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38699 "2019-11-11T21:39:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > From _Rolling Stone_: > > [Is This Trump's Pettiest Scam? Campaign Appears to Run Fake Contests](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-campaign-scam-contests-meal-with-president-909188/) I get the sense that Donny is desperate for money. Everyone talks about emoluments, but I can see why Donny thinks he isn’t violating the emoluments clause: his businesses rake in money, but it’s just to plug the ever increasing number of holes in the financial dike. Just like his casinos: it doesn’t matter how much money he takes in; he can’t count, and he ends up even in even more debt. He’s so fucking incompetent he can’t even scam for profit. I think that his tax returns, when we eventually get them, will eventually show years and years of write-offs. Other public records will eventually show fraud. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38700 "2019-11-11T22:45:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > He’s going to be there today (Nov 11 2019), Veteran’s Day. He’ll be attending the NYC 100th anniversary Veteran’s Day parade. In the process he’ll be breaking tradition, not attending the ceremonies at Arlington (Pence will be there). [Trump Met With ‘Lock Him Up’ Chants, ‘Impeach’ Signs At NYC Veterans Day Parade](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-veterans-day-parade-2019_n_5dc9962de4b00927b2375b76) > [@Huffpost](#): > > Initial reports indicated Trump would lay a wreath after his speech at the Eternal Light Memorial, but he and the first lady watched the ceremony from behind glass on the stage. > > Outside the park, Veterans Day Parade attendees ― a mix of veterans and their families, Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters ― lined the streets of the parade route. > > Janet Gonzales, 85, said she has a long list of reasons why she came out to protest Trump on Monday, including his “upside down” foreign policy in the Middle East. > > Asked what she would say to Trump if she met him, she said, “Fuck you.” ---
**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:** [November 11, 2019, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38701 "2019-11-11T23:18:48Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > [Trump Met With ‘Lock Him Up’ Chants, ‘Impeach’ Signs At NYC Veterans Day Parade](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-veterans-day-parade-2019_n_5dc9962de4b00927b2375b76) > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by Huffpost > > Initial reports indicated Trump would lay a wreath after his speech at the Eternal Light Memorial, but he and the first lady watched the ceremony from behind glass on the stage. > > > > Outside the park, Veterans Day Parade attendees ― a mix of veterans and their families, Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters ― lined the streets of the parade route. > > > > Janet Gonzales, 85, said she has a long list of reasons why she came out to protest Trump on Monday, including his “upside down” foreign policy in the Middle East. > > > > **Asked what she would say to Trump if she met him, she said, “Fuck you.”** My bold. Now that’s beautiful. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38702 "2019-11-12T01:03:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That’s not true. Stormy Daniels isn’t dead. Yet ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38703 "2019-11-12T01:22:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Janet Gonzales, 85, said she has a long list of reasons why she came out to protest Trump on Monday, including his “upside down” foreign policy in the Middle East. > > Asked what she would say to Trump if she met him, she said, “Fuck you.” And that’s why I think I’d like to have dinner with him. I have a feeling he’d end it after just a few minutes. ---
**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:** [November 12, 2019, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38704 "2019-11-12T01:25:39Z")
> [@Mr.Greenjeans](#): > > And that’s why I think I’d like to have dinner with him. I have a feeling he’d end it after just a few minutes. And then you could have both scoops of ice cream for yourself, amirite? 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1934) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1936)