# 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:** 2018
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40345 "2020-02-05T00:39:21Z")
[Triumph The Insult Comic Dog returns.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=5VXQa-aFc_E&feature=emb_logo) ---
**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:** [February 5, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40346 "2020-02-05T00:40:50Z")
I watched a SotU back when the president had outlawed broccoli. It was on the TV, then we turned on the radio, which was a couple seconds different. Then my friend did an adjustment to the stereo, to turn on strong reverb on the radio side. That was when it started to make sense, or, at least became an entertaining experience. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40347 "2020-02-05T01:15:41Z")
Individual 1 is going to award Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom. Blerg. > **[Trump to award Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/04/trump-presidential-medal-freedom-rush-limbaugh-110757)** > > It is the highest civilian award in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40348 "2020-02-05T01:30:35Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 is going to award Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom. > Blerg. > [https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/04/trump-presidential-medal-freedom-rush-limbaugh-110757](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/04/trump-presidential-medal-freedom-rush-limbaugh-110757) Please tell me he isn’t planning to do it during the State of the Union [del]rally[/del] address. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40349 "2020-02-05T01:53:18Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I watched a SotU back when the president had outlawed broccoli. It was on the TV, then we turned on the radio, which was a couple seconds different. Then my friend did an adjustment to the stereo, to turn on strong reverb on the radio side. That was when it started to make sense, or, at least became an entertaining experience. What you do is, you put the SotU on the radio, quiet, and then cue up “Dark Star” from **Live Dead** , and play it really loud while doing bong hits and shots of 100 proof Bourbon. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2020, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40350 "2020-02-05T03:17:04Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Please tell me he isn’t planning to do it during the State of the Union [del]rally[/del] address. Um, yeah. He did. Melania did. In the gallery. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40351 "2020-02-05T03:22:08Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > [Triumph The Insult Comic Dog returns.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=5VXQa-aFc_E&feature=emb_logo) That’s hysterical. How’d he get in and get away with all that? ---
**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:** [February 5, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40352 "2020-02-05T04:32:17Z")
[Bernie responds to Trump’s bullshit.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IahRHztsRE&t=35m10s) I’ve not watched it but CNN said he goes line by line. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40353 "2020-02-06T09:26:58Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I feel as down in the dumps as I did the day after the election… and it’s going to be worse tomorrow after today’s vote. ☹ Any optimists left in the crowd? _puts down his whiskey, takes a long drag of smoke, eyes a mile away_ Optimism… I haven’t heard that name in a long time… _slow fade to Viet Nam flashback sequence_ ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40354 "2020-02-06T13:23:15Z")
Bob Woodward appears to have gotten the title of his Trump book spot-on: _[Fear: Trump in the White House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear:_Trump_in_the_White_House)_ > [@](#): > > Woodward said that the book’s title is based on something Trump told him in an unrelated 2016 interview: > > Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word, fear. [In Private, Republicans Admit They Acquitted Trump Out of Fear](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/opinion/trump-senate-acquittal-impeachment.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage) _One journalist remarked to me, “How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?”_ By Sherrod Brown Mr. Brown is a Democratic senator from Ohio. > [@](#): > > Not guilty. Not guilty. > > In the United States Senate, like in many spheres of life, fear does the business. > > … > History has indeed taught us that when it comes to the instincts that drive us, fear has no rival. As the lead House impeachment manager, Representative Adam Schiff, has noted, Robert Kennedy spoke of how “moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle.” > > Playing on that fear, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, sought a quick impeachment trial for President Trump with as little attention to it as possible. Reporters, who usually roam the Capitol freely, have been cordoned off like cattle in select areas. Mr. McConnell ordered limited camera views in the Senate chamber so only presenters — not absent senators — could be spotted. > > And barely a peep from Republican lawmakers. > > One journalist remarked to me, “How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?” > > Late in the evening on day four of the trial I saw it, just 10 feet across the aisle from my seat at Desk 88, when Mr. Schiff told the Senate: “CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidant said that Republican senators were warned, ‘Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.’” The response from Republicans was immediate and furious. Several groaned and protested and muttered, “Not true.” But pike or no pike, Mr. Schiff had clearly struck a nerve. (In the words of Lizzo: truth hurts.) > > Of course, the Republican senators who have covered for Mr. Trump love what he delivers for them. But Vice President Mike Pence would give them the same judges, the same tax cuts, the same attacks on workers’ rights and the environment. So that’s not really the reason for their united chorus of “not guilty.” > > For the stay-in-office-at-all-cost representatives and senators, fear is the motivator. They are afraid that Mr. Trump might give them a nickname like “Low Energy Jeb” and “Lyin’ Ted,” or that he might tweet about their disloyalty. Or — worst of all — that he might come to their state to campaign against them in the Republican primary. They worry: > > “Will the hosts on Fox attack me?” > > “Will the mouthpieces on talk radio go after me?” > > “Will the Twitter trolls turn their followers against me?” I imagine that Trump has done even shadier and/or more criminal shit than we currently know about (because it’s his nature) and the spineless Senators and all the Trump supporters currently crowing about Trump’s acquittal will not be looked upon kindly by the future. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40355 "2020-02-06T14:08:49Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I imagine that Trump has done even shadier and/or more criminal shit than we currently know about (because it’s his nature) and the spineless Senators and all the Trump supporters currently crowing about Trump’s acquittal will not be looked upon kindly by the future. Counterpoint : I don’t imagine so, because if he’d done more crimes he would have said so himself. Like he couldn’t have helped bragging about that shitty thing he totally got away with doing. Because that’s his nature too, little frog. Him and his cronies might not be able to help themselves from doing crimes, but they’re _really_ bad at crime. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40356 "2020-02-06T14:12:18Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Counterpoint : I don’t imagine so, because if he’d done more crimes he would have said so himself. Like he couldn’t have helped bragging about that shitty thing he totally got away with doing. Because that’s his nature too, little frog. Him and his cronies might not be able to help themselves from doing crimes, but they’re _really_ bad at crime. He doesn’t believe they’re crimes, because anything that makes him come out on top is legal (in his opinion). You should know that. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40357 "2020-02-06T14:19:57Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Not an optimist, but I am a fantasist. My fantasy is that they vote 100-0 to convict and remove. _My_ fantasy is 60-40 to convict. Then he gets convicted of various felonies and spends his time mulling over who the _one_ Senator he might have persuaded so he could have enjoyed another couple years of freedom might be. Either fantasy is about as likely. ---
**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:** [February 6, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40358 "2020-02-06T15:43:37Z")
Well you need 67 votes to convict. Fantasy fail. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40359 "2020-02-06T17:32:57Z")
You all got to turn on the TV and watch Trump give his victory lap/spike the football talk. It’s classic Trump in extemporaneous mode. In other words, it’s horrifying. He’s doing nothing but venting and airing all the grievances of the past 3 years. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40360 "2020-02-06T17:37:55Z")
It pales in comparison to the mess Trump & Co. have made of immigration or foreign policy, but it’s a patent illustration of this mal-Administration’s stupidity nonetheless: Trump is planning to issue an executive order decreeing that all future federal public buildings be in the neoclassical style. No more modern buildings, as they all have “little aesthetic appeal,” strictly replicas of Greek and Roman temples like our forefathers built. [Article.](https://www.dwell.com/article/making-federal-buildings-beautiful-again-president-trump-executive-order-fffb1df2?utm_medium=email&utm_source=postup&utm_campaign=&list=1)[A more detailed article (NY TImes).](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/arts/design/trump-modern-architecture.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_NN_p_20200206§ion=whatElse&campaign_id=9&instance_id=15772&segment_id=21016&user_id=8a51a02854e7fca29b68128b3407e7c2®i_id=101065141ion=whatElse) Trump’s been put up to it by a group of pearl-clutchers who think that any architecture later than neoclassical is “degraded and dehumanizing” but I’m sure it appeals to his Mussolini-like preference for all things fascistic, dictatorial and overblown. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a way to include literal fasces in new courthouses and federal buildings – axes in, of course – and then point to classical and neoclassical architecture with fasces as an “I’m not touching you” troll-y fig-leaf when people squawk about it. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40361 "2020-02-06T17:43:50Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > You all got to turn on the TV and watch Trump give his victory lap/spike the football talk. It’s classic Trump in extemporaneous mode. In other words, it’s horrifying. He’s doing nothing but venting and airing all the grievances of the past 3 years. When the most powerful man in the world spends that much time talking about how the world’s been unfair and mean to him…just no words for that. ---
**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:** [February 6, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40362 "2020-02-06T17:45:16Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > You all got to turn on the TV and watch Trump give his victory lap/spike the football talk. It’s classic Trump in extemporaneous mode. In other words, it’s horrifying. He’s doing nothing but venting and airing all the grievances of the past 3 years. Sorry, no can do. But thank \*\*you \*\*for taking one for the team. 🙂 Is he slurring? Doing the shoulder spasm thing? Repeating phrases three or more times in the same sentence? Those things would make me happy. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40363 "2020-02-06T17:49:44Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Sorry, no can do. But thank \*\*you \*\*for taking one for the team. 🙂 Is he slurring? Doing the shoulder spasm thing? Repeating phrases three or more times in the same sentence? Those things would make me happy. No, just a little sniffling. But he’s pulling out all the stops: stories about big powerful friends of his who come up to him and offer him praise. A story where somebody calls him “Sir”. Slamming “bad cops”, the Steele Dossier, FISA courts, corrupt Democrats, Mueller and on and on and on and on. And: standing behind the podium with the presidential seal, he called it all “bullshit”. This is where we are now: the POTUS needs to be put on a 5 second delay. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40364 "2020-02-06T17:54:55Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > It pales in comparison to the mess Trump & Co. have made of immigration or foreign policy, but it’s a patent illustration of this mal-Administration’s stupidity nonetheless: Trump is planning to issue an executive order decreeing that all future federal public buildings be in the neoclassical style. No more modern buildings, as they all have “little aesthetic appeal,” strictly replicas of Greek and Roman temples like our forefathers built. [Article.](https://www.dwell.com/article/making-federal-buildings-beautiful-again-president-trump-executive-order-fffb1df2?utm_medium=email&utm_source=postup&utm_campaign=&list=1)[A more detailed article (NY TImes).](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/arts/design/trump-modern-architecture.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_NN_p_20200206§ion=whatElse&campaign_id=9&instance_id=15772&segment_id=21016&user_id=8a51a02854e7fca29b68128b3407e7c2®i_id=101065141ion=whatElse) > > Trump’s been put up to it by a group of pearl-clutchers who think that any architecture later than neoclassical is “degraded and dehumanizing” but I’m sure it appeals to his Mussolini-like preference for all things fascistic, dictatorial and overblown. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a way to include literal fasces in new courthouses and federal buildings – axes in, of course – and then point to classical and neoclassical architecture with fasces as an “I’m not touching you” troll-y fig-leaf when people squawk about it. How would mandating architectural styles for all future federal buildings by executive order even _work?_ What’s to stop the next president from issuing a contrary executive order requiring all federal buildings to be in Art Nouveau style and painted pink? Don’t government buildings normally take more than one presidential term to go from original design to completed project? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2017) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2019)