# 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:** 1991
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39805 "2020-01-06T17:22:44Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Do the millions of Trump-lickers have even a faint clue of what morons and liars their entire team is? I can’t ask right-wing Dopers — they just want to laugh about “libtard tears” and pretend they voted for Nitwit Johnson. > . From what I gathered from another thread, we can’t ask Right wing Dopers because we have been so very, very mean to them, they have taken their ball and gone home. We are meany meany poopy heads, and they won’t defend Trump because of us. Our fault. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39806 "2020-01-06T17:30:23Z")
[Spin](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/476915-conway-defends-trump-threat-to-target-iranian-cultural-sites), [spin](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593975732527112)… > [@](#): > > “He didn’t say he’s targeting cultural sites. He said that he was openly asking the question why in the world they’re allowed to maim people, put out roadside bombs, kill our people, torture our people … he said that they identified 52 sites,” Conway said of Trump. > [@](#): > > **Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago)** ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39807 "2020-01-06T18:02:30Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [Spin](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/476915-conway-defends-trump-threat-to-target-iranian-cultural-sites), [spin](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593975732527112)… You missed a little of the spin in your quote box - > [@https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593975732527112](#): > > targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats! ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39808 "2020-01-06T18:06:15Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > From what I gathered from another thread, we can’t ask Right wing Dopers because we have been so very, very mean to them, they have taken their ball and gone home. > > We are meany meany poopy heads, and they won’t defend Trump because of us. Our fault. These are the people who say they “suffered” under that black Kenyan Mislim dude, but can’t seem to think of anything other than, “black man in Whote House” or "his wife said “slavery built the White House!” or “he said we could keep our doctors!” Hardly up there with Trump attacking the US’ “killers” to defend Bill O’Reilly’s criticism of Putin, or Trump’s Helsinki Putin tongue bath. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39809 "2020-01-06T18:43:14Z")
> [@margin](#): > > So…Pompeo is actively trying to bring about the end of the world. Lovely. I’ve been reading up on my eschatology and it means that, Biblically speaking to a subset of Christians, Trump truly is the Antichrist, or (my favorite) the Abomination of Desolation. Which would mean we are in the Great Tribulation preceding the Second Coming. Say goodbye to three quarters of Humanity ---
**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:** [January 6, 2020, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39810 "2020-01-06T18:52:09Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > I didn’t. **Ike** gets a ten post penalty for failure to use the gallows humor emoji. I don’t emoji. You have to parse my posts to appreciate the delicate humor. And my middle name is “Michael.” Dad wanted it for my first name, but then I would have been a character in an Irish joke. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39811 "2020-01-06T18:59:15Z")
My real first name is Michael, according to my mother. Not Mike, my nom de guerre, and certainly NOT Mikey, except, and only under protest, to two, maybe three, people. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39812 "2020-01-06T19:14:05Z")
No, I’M Michael! Just didn’t want to be left out. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39813 "2020-01-06T19:17:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > On another note, on my morning commute I heard that some legislator compared the assassination of Soleimani to the US shooting down Yamamoto’s plane during WWII. > > No, it’s not. It’s more like the US shooting Yamamoto in Switzerland before December 1941. Somebody on Fox News wanted to know why there wasn’t the same fear and gnashing of teeth when Obama had Osama Bin Laden killed. Maybe because Bin Laden wasn’t a state actor? ---
**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:** [January 6, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39814 "2020-01-06T19:20:03Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > As they say, the problem with riding a tiger is the dismount. I always wondered how the whole current administration was going to handle a transition of power. The stunning scale of corruption, malfeasance and incompetence in the Republican party since the Reagan (Reagan - hell Nixon) administrations is nothing compared what the people around Trump have managed. > > Probably the best thing for Trump would be if he were to stroke out while in office. > > I don’t know what people like Barr and Pompeo are going to do. > > Probably retire to a cushy lobbying job just like all their predecessors. There are reports that Pompeo wants to run for either Governor of Senator from Kansas. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39815 "2020-01-06T19:23:57Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Somebody on Fox News wanted to know why there wasn’t the same fear and gnashing of teeth when Obama had Osama Bin Laden killed. Maybe because Bin Laden wasn’t a state actor? Well, Osama bin Laden was confessedly behind the 9/11 attacks, the biggest and most destructive attacks on the US mainland in ages. And G.W. Bush had already been trying to get him for years, before dismissing him as irrelevant. And considering the the US had already gone into Afghanistan after him, there had already _been_ a war started over him. It would’ve looked like sour grapes if the Republicans had gone after Obama for succeeding in what their own guy had failed to do. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39816 "2020-01-06T19:24:09Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Somebody on Fox News wanted to know why there wasn’t the same fear and gnashing of teeth when Obama had Osama Bin Laden killed. Maybe because Bin Laden wasn’t a state actor? Osama bin Ladin perpetrated the worst civilian massacre on US soil in one day. It happened live on TV. Suleimani apparently took some trouble to create the appearance of distance. Plus, Trump didn’t exactly trouble himself to explain anything. If he had, or if there had been imminent danger…But of course Trump has lied so many thousands of times, nothing he says could be taken at face value. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39817 "2020-01-06T19:32:18Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > I wonder how the White House will spin it, however. If they want a ‘casus belli’ at any cost to the truth… They’ll add Kenyans to the “Do Not Enter” list. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39818 "2020-01-06T20:17:48Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Somebody on Fox News wanted to know why there wasn’t the same fear and gnashing of teeth when Obama had Osama Bin Laden killed. Maybe because Bin Laden wasn’t a state actor? As I recall there was a certain amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth. The raid that got Bin Ladin was a pretty serious violation of Pakistani sovereignty that had ramifications on both our relations with Pakistan and the war in Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39819 "2020-01-06T21:20:38Z")
> [@margin](#): > > So…Pompeo is actively trying to bring about the end of the world. Lovely. This is what I always look for in my upper level government officials. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39820 "2020-01-06T21:30:07Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Somebody on Fox News wanted to know why there wasn’t the same fear and gnashing of teeth when Obama had Osama Bin Laden killed. Maybe because Bin Laden wasn’t a state actor? No parallels between Suleimani and Bin Laden. Bin Laden killed 3000 Americans on US soil. Suleimani only operates in the Middle East. Bin Laden declared war on the US. If Suleimani had made any hostile statements about the US, I’m sure we would have heard about them recently. His agenda was increasing Iranian hegemony, which sometime brought him in conflict with US goals. Bin Laden was Public Enemy #1, and his demise was US policy since 9/11 (minus the period where Bush lost focus). Last week at this time, not one American in 1000 could have told you who led the Quds Force. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39821 "2020-01-06T21:38:26Z")
Moreover, Suleimani was a sanctioned government official acting on behalf of his sovereign government. Suleimani is certainly responsible for a lot of American deaths, but for us to preemptively assassinate an official of a foreign army (Iran’s) on another country’s sovereign soil (Iraq’s) is tantamount to Iran assassinating Mike Pompeo while he is visiting Saudi Arabia. I realize Trump Republicans are doing everything they can to conflate Suleimani with a terrorist like bin Laden, but they are not the same thing at all. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39822 "2020-01-06T22:13:10Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > No parallels between Suleimani and Bin Laden. > > \ > Last week at this time, not one American in 1000 could have told you who led the Quds Force. Or even what the Quds Force was. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39823 "2020-01-06T22:23:42Z")
Trump has successfully turned the USA into a Rogue State. The USA is now dangerous and unpredictable, and an ongoing danger to peace and trade. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/39824 "2020-01-06T22:26:39Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Trump has successfully turned the USA into a Rogue State. The USA is now dangerous and unpredictable, and an ongoing danger to peace and trade. Yes. And few Americans even get this yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1990) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1992)