# 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:** 1971
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39405 "2019-12-18T01:43:09Z")
The 6-page litter mentions that she wants she impeachment process to be bipartisan. Why? Does she think that there is still something of value to be had from the Republiopath Party? There is clearly something wrong inside the Speaker’s head if she does not think that she Rs need to be thoroughly and completely repudiated forthwith. They have become dysfunctional and have to be excised like a vestigial appendage so that the country can stop being dragged down by its atrophied parts. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39406 "2019-12-18T04:23:04Z")
A Republican Nebraska state legislator came after Individual 1 for trying to claim that there is a United Republican Party, and other Republicans joined in. > **[Nebraska Republican Fires Back at Trump on Twitter for 'United Republican...](https://secondnexus.com/donald-trump-mccollister-united-republican)** > > So much for "united." ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39407 "2019-12-18T04:40:42Z")
Per Jonathan Karl of ABC News, in a tweet today: > [@](#): > > I am told White House lawyers were cut out of the process of drafting the President’s six-page letter to Pelosi. At the direction of the President, the letter was drafted by Eric Ueland, Stephen Miller and Mulvaney aide Michael Williams. Cipollone saw it after it was drafted. Eric Ueland is Legal Affairs Director. He is not an attorney. I"m shocked that Miller was one of this manifesto’s architects. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39408 "2019-12-18T04:47:56Z")
At the risk of being whooshed, why the fuck do you find that shocking? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39409 "2019-12-18T05:46:59Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Paul Manafort has been [hospitalized](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ex-trump-campaign-chairman-paul-manafort-hospitalized-for-cardiac-event-sources/ar-BBY5DMS?ocid=spartandhp) after suffering a “cardiac event.” He’s got a heart? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39410 "2019-12-18T06:19:47Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > If I’d written it, I would’ve included a lengthy aside where a very respected leader calls him and says “Sir, what they’re doing to you with this fake impeachment is the worst thing any president has had to go through”, a cutie about how he invented the word “impeach”, and a conspiracy theory about Michelle Obama doing quid pro quos with ISIS. quids pros quos Or maybe quisd pros quos. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39411 "2019-12-18T08:23:19Z")
The US Department of Defense and the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division honored the men who fought at the Battle of the Bulge by celebrating a German officer who massacred 84 US prisoners of war. [https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Defense-Army-units-remember-Battle-of-the-Bulge-14912164.php](https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Defense-Army-units-remember-Battle-of-the-Bulge-14912164.php)? ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39412 "2019-12-18T09:35:52Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > He’s got a heart? Maybe finding that out was the event…? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39413 "2019-12-18T10:43:00Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > At the risk of being whooshed, why the fuck do you find that shocking? Meant to be snarky - I’m not shocked at all, actually. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39414 "2019-12-18T13:06:50Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > **Every Accusation Is A Confession.** And every accusation is also a projection, and it signals what Trump and his party’s true intentions are. When they write that the Democrats are the “enemies of Democracy,” that’s a pretty chilling thought, because if they view the Democrats as the enemies of the very foundation of our political system, it simultaneously signals that they are the ones who have been ordained to ‘protect’ us from their threat. And if they regard the threat to their form of democracy is a unique one, which they do, then it lays down the foundation for novel ‘solutions’ to this problem. Again, the undoing of democracy ultimately requires some form of complicity and consent on the part of ordinary voters. We’ve now had pretty compelling evidence that the administration solicited foreign interference, that they obstructed justice into the resulting investigation, and that they tried to use tax-funded foreign aid to compel a foreign government to do political favors for a sitting president. This is behavior that would make the Framers roll in their graves, and yet the majority of this country clearly doesn’t care (enough) to demand that this behavior be put to an end. And this administration knows that, and their rhetoric and behavior indicates that they’re normalizing the abuse of power, and that they intend to do much more of it in the future. I’d add that the partisan Supreme Court isn’t helping to keep the branches of power separate either, given their keen interest in reviewing congressional powers that are already clearly established by statute. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39415 "2019-12-18T13:42:49Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Again, the undoing of democracy ultimately requires some form of complicity and consent on the part of ordinary voters. We’ve now had pretty compelling evidence that the administration solicited foreign interference, that they obstructed justice into the resulting investigation, and that they tried to use tax-funded foreign aid to compel a foreign government to do political favors for a sitting president. This is behavior that would make the Framers roll in their graves, and yet the majority of this country clearly doesn’t care (enough) to demand that this behavior be put to an end. And this administration knows that, and their rhetoric and behavior indicates that they’re normalizing the abuse of power, and that they intend to do much more of it in the future. I’ve been having a thought lately about this and things I’ve been hearing about the NRA being funded by the Russians (which might be just a conspiracy theory, not sure). The “jokes” about him staying in office for a 3rd term or becoming king or whatever, have been making me a touch nervous. It seems to me that the second amendment was originally intended to allow the people to rise up and prevent our democracy from being corrupted into a dictatorship. So it seems pretty puzzling that all of the NRA fans have been on Trumps side. If you look at it that way, the rumors of the NRA being funded by the Russians makes a kind of sense. It’s playing the long game, for sure, so it could just be conspiracy theory. But if it’s true, it’s pretty terrifying. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39416 "2019-12-18T14:19:39Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Holy shit, anyone read [this 6-page letter from Trump to Pelosi?](https://www.npr.org/2019/12/17/788982994/read-president-trump-sends-pelosi-letter-protesting-partisan-impeachment-charade) It’s something…special. Not enough is being said about how completely BONKERS this letter is! [Jennifer Rubin of Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/17/so-many-hysterical-men/) steps in: > [@](#): > > \*\*It is hard to capture how bizarre and frightening Trump’s letter to Pelosi is \*\* > > On the eve of his impeachment, a stain that obviously torments him more than his enablers have let on, President Trump issued a rambling, unhinged and lie-filled letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). It is difficult to capture how bizarre and frightening the letter is simply by counting the utter falsehoods (e.g., repeating the debunked accusation that Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was fired for investigating Burisma; claiming Congress is obstructing justice; arguing he was afforded no rights in the process), or by quoting from the invective dripping from his pen. > > What is most striking is the spectacle of the letter itself — > [ul] > [li]a president so unhinged as to issue such an harangue; [/li][li]a White House entirely unable to stop him; [/li][li]a party so subservient to him that it would not trigger a search for a new nominee; [/li][li]a right-wing media bubble that will herald Trump for being Trump and excoriate Democrats for driving the president to this point; [/li][li]and a mainstream media not quite able to address a public temper-tantrum (resorting instead to euphemisms such as “scorching,” “searing,” etc.).[/li][/ul] > The letter and the response (or lack thereof) is the perfect encapsulation of the state of American politics — in which one major party has bound itself to the mast of a raging, dangerous narcissist while the other cannot uphold the norms and institutions on which our democracy depends. > … Bullet points pulled out from wall o’ text by me to emphasize them. This is just one more alarming example of how all of us have gotten used to his crazy behavior and “normalized” it. Okay, we’re used to the daily tweetstorm. We’re used to him conducting policy (such as it is) by tweet. We’re used to senior staffers fingin gout they’ve been fired in a tweet. We’re used to his lies (up into five figures now). Ho Hum. Yawn. But a six-page harangue addressed to the Speaker of the House??? We don’t need no stinkin’ euphemisms! Call this what it is: NUTS. This is not the action of a sane, mature, capable public servant with his head screwed on properly. This is [Grandpa at Christmas Dinner.](https://imgur.com/vQ7gDr4) WHAT IF OBAMA HAD PULLED SOMETHING LIKE THIS? Pretty soon we froggies will be cooked. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39417 "2019-12-18T14:21:15Z")
> [@](#): > > But the six-page letter didn’t receive “good marks and reviews.” While one guest on Fox Business called it a “masterpiece” and compared it to the Gettysburg Address, many on both the left and right saw it differently. > **[Trump Claims His Bonkers Letter Is Getting 'Good Marks,' Attacks Pelosi Again](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-letter-reviews_n_5df9cd3ae4b0969b618cfada)** > > The president's six-page letter complaining about the impeachment process was widely panned. "Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers started this country, and did a good job of it. Great job. Not like that Jerky Jeff Davis and his crowd, Losers, all of them, like we just showed here at Gettysburg. " ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39418 "2019-12-18T14:46:15Z")
My response to the letter would have been along the lines of “It’ll be a cold day in hell when I take constitutional interpretations from a guy who thinks Article II means ‘I can do anything I want.’” ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39419 "2019-12-18T14:47:34Z")
I think it would have been great if she just called a press conference and shredded the letter on live TV. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39420 "2019-12-18T14:53:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > [Trump Claims His Bonkers Letter Is Getting 'Good Marks,' Attacks Pelosi Again | HuffPost Latest News](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-letter-reviews_n_5df9cd3ae4b0969b618cfada) > "Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers started this country, and did a good job of it. Great job. Not like that Jerky Jeff Davis and his crowd, Losers, all of them, like we just showed here at Gettysburg. " Four score and what the hell is a score anyway, and who wants a score of four? It’s a lousy score, four! So anyway, I was speaking with that guy Franklin the other day, not many people know this but he did a pretty good job with the Post, not like it is now, what a bunch of losers and he said, he told me "sir, mister president, … sorry but I’m not going to try and go for six pages. I want to keep my head mainly over my shoulders and in one piece. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39421 "2019-12-18T15:20:47Z")
Hm, reading the first paragraph I can note that 1. impeachment is in fact precedented. I’ll let calling it ‘partisan’ slide. 2. It is entirely constitutional. 3. How is it an abuse of power? The House is granted this power by the Constitution, and in this case they seem to be using it as intended. 4. It is Democrat_ic_ party. He gets it right that the good ol’ US is almost 250 years old. Good grief, I’m going to work now, alert me if something makes sense out of this administration. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39422 "2019-12-18T15:26:31Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > I’ve been having a thought lately about this and things I’ve been hearing about the NRA being funded by the Russians (which might be just a conspiracy theory, not sure). The “jokes” about him staying in office for a 3rd term or becoming king or whatever, have been making me a touch nervous. It seems to me that the second amendment was originally intended to allow the people to rise up and prevent our democracy from being corrupted into a dictatorship. So it seems pretty puzzling that all of the NRA fans have been on Trumps side. If you look at it that way, the rumors of the NRA being funded by the Russians makes a kind of sense. It’s playing the long game, for sure, so it could just be conspiracy theory. But if it’s true, it’s pretty terrifying. Another aspect to the NRA money angle conspiracy theory is a lot of Republicans also got tainted money through the NRA like Paul Ryan, Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell and this explains why they don’t want this looked at more closely and their unwillingness to criticize Trump–they’re all in the same boat (although Ryan bailed out) and it’s hanging over their heads. Cenk Uygar of _The Young Turks_ the other day was opining that one reason the Democrats are focusing on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and not Trump’s financial shenanigans is that many of them also take money from big corporations in the same way Republicans do and so they are beholden to this money and don’t want their own donations looked at the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39423 "2019-12-18T16:25:29Z")
Sure the dems take money from big corproations, but for Cenk to draw an equivalence between that and the reps’ fiscal chicanery? Hmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39424 "2019-12-18T16:39:55Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Sure the dems take money from big corproations, but for Cenk to draw an equivalence between that and the reps’ fiscal chicanery? > Hmmmm… Here’s the clip: [Trump Fighting With Mitch McConnell Over Impeachment Trial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lob5xACG4vA) Rewatching it, it’s more about campaign finances in general and taxes, Ana Kasparian brings it up and then Cenk offers his commentary (starts just before the 6 min mark). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1970) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1972)