# 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:** 2043
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40845 "2020-02-27T03:14:50Z")
[Bill Barr said a lot of dumb & evil shit today.](https://apnews.com/37e1240b3cb0dc50eda91d8101ffbbb5) > [@](#): > > U.S. Attorney General William Barr warned a group of Christian broadcasters on Wednesday that the decline of religion in America is undermining liberal democracy. In a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Tennessee, Barr said religion is necessary to provide citizens with a moral compass. Without religious morality, tyranny is necessary to control people, he said. > > Barr told an audience of a few hundred that the courts’ misinterpretation of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause is helping drive the erosion of religion “and its benevolent influence on our communal life.” > > “While most everyone agrees that we must have separation of church and state, this does not require that we drive religion from the public square and affirmatively use government power to promote a culture of disbelief,” he said to applause. > > Barr also asserted that progressives want to use public benefits to create a permanent and dependent political constituency. > > “The tacit goal of this project is to convert all of us into 25-year-olds living in the government’s basement, focusing our energies on obtaining a larger allowance rather than getting a job, and moving out and and taking responsibility for ourselves,” Barr said to enthusiastic applause. I really like the subtle way he said “go ahead and kill atheists”. :eek: Betsy DeVos was there too: > [@](#): > > Speaking to the convention earlier in the day, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said religious schools and colleges should be able to receive government support on an equal footing with public and other non-religious institutions. To that end, she recently proposed a federal tax credit that would help fund scholarships for private K-12 schools. Many public school advocates oppose the plan. > > The audience cheered her assertion that too many children are not being allowed to express their religious faith in school. > > Asked how her religious faith influences her work, DeVos said, “It basically is foundational to everything that I do. It does inform all my days, all of my decisions.” I’m guessing she’s very glad that she can pick and choose what to believe and obey from minute to minute; that’s gotta make things easier. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40846 "2020-02-27T04:05:45Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Since Individual-2 has now been put in charge of dealing with the virus plague thing, it is my understanding that he will push for an executive order declaring the virus illegal and anyone caught in possession of it is to be sent to a camp for conversion therapy to make them aware that they are not really infected. He’s putting the guy in charge who fucked over HIV patients in his home state by cutting funding for their treatment and support, sparking an HIV outbreak? Doesn’t seem to bode well. What’s he going to do, pray for them to get better or just take them out and shoot them? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40847 "2020-02-27T04:47:50Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 said “only 15 people have come down with the virus in the US.” That’s just trying to make things seem better, because there are a lot of people in the US who have it, they just didn’t contract it here. As of 23 February 2020, [there are 53 cases in the United States](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6908e1.htm). > [@eschereal](#): > > Since Individual-2 has now been put in charge of dealing with the virus plague thing, it is my understanding that he will push for an executive order declaring the virus illegal and anyone caught in possession of it is to be sent to a camp for conversion therapy to make them aware that they are not really infected. I guess that’s what the incompetent-in-chief meant when he said the other day that he hadd “the corona virus completely under control”. > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > When he was Governor of Indiana and there was an outbreak HIV in one country in Indiana, he said he was going to go home and pray on it. > > “Pastor” Rick Wiles said that all China needs to do to end coronavirus is to convert to Christianity. Yeah, that worked out really well [the last time there was a Chinese government saying they were Christian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Heavenly_Kingdom) > [@JKellyMap](#): > > Just as Trump was babbling about second amendment rights (in answer to a question about how the corona virus might impact our economy), a man was killing 5 people (and himself) in a Milwaukee workplace with a gun. & > [@Chefguy](#): > > He’s putting the guy in charge who fucked over HIV patients in his home state by cutting funding for their treatment and support, sparking an HIV outbreak? Doesn’t seem to bode well. What’s he going to do, pray for them to get better or just take them out and shoot them? Hey, I wonder if the incompetent-in-chief can put these two incidents together and say that’s the way to “completely control” the situation. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40848 "2020-02-27T04:49:31Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > He’s putting the guy in charge who fucked over HIV patients in his home state by cutting funding for their treatment and support, sparking an HIV outbreak? Doesn’t seem to bode well. What’s he going to do, pray for them to get better or just take them out and shoot them? I call Excluded Middle! Clearly the reasonable option you’ve left out is to build concentration camps for those who test positive for the virus and hold them there indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40849 "2020-02-27T04:57:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > He’s putting the guy in charge who fucked over HIV patients in his home state by cutting funding for their treatment and support, sparking an HIV outbreak? Doesn’t seem to bode well. What’s he going to do, pray for them to get better or just take them out and shoot them? God created coronavirus and so God will cure coronavirus.\* \*Apocryphal quote from former Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry about the city’s snow removal policy: ~“The Lord brought the snow, the Lord will take it away.” The joke was Barry’s snow removal policy was “spring”. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40850 "2020-02-27T05:17:53Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Since Individual-2 has now been put in charge of dealing with the virus plague thing, it is my understanding that he will push for an executive order declaring the virus illegal and anyone caught in possession of it is to be sent to a camp for conversion therapy to make them aware that they are not really infected. One assumes he’ll be solving the Caronavirus in his spare time while he’s not running that Religious Liberty Task Force. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40851 "2020-02-27T05:47:49Z")
“Mike Pence has been my most loyal servant. Let me hand this pandemic off to him. I’m sure there are still some career civil servants in the federal government around that can help out with that, right? Hey Mike, don’t fuck it up!” ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40852 "2020-02-27T07:13:23Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > “Mike Pence has been my most loyal servant. Let me hand this pandemic off to him. I’m sure there are still some career civil servants in the federal government around that can help out with that, right? Hey Mike, don’t fuck it up!” Ahem…let’s “religionize” the comment. _For verily hath my servant Michael been the most loyal of servants. Therefor hath I, in my divine capacity, handeth this plague to him so that he can muster the minions of earthly government. And I issueth to him a warning: Michael, do not turn this into more of a cluster than it already hath become._ And now to “[trumpize it](http://www.donaldtrumptranslator.com/)”. _Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, build a fortune - mike Pence has been my most loyal servant. Which, in all fairness, let me hand this pandemic off to him. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her. Now if you remember, i’m sure there are still some career civil servants in the federal government around that can help out with that, right? I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, hey Mike, don’t fuck it up! We’re going to make America great again._ ---
**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 27, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40853 "2020-02-27T13:37:37Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Since Individual-2 has now been put in charge of dealing with the virus plague thing, it is my understanding that he will push for an executive order declaring the virus illegal and anyone caught in possession of it is to be sent to a camp for conversion therapy to make them aware that they are not really infected. I guess trump put the best brain he had available on the problem, amirite? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40854 "2020-02-27T14:21:20Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > God created coronavirus Either that, or Hillary created coronavirus in a secret lab in the basement of Comet Ping Pong Pizza. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40855 "2020-02-27T14:21:54Z")
The Trump administration is telling Congressional Democrats that unless they cut subsidies for heat from low-income people, he will [continue to hold up emergency funding to prepare the US for its possibility](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/trump-administration-coronavirus-budget-response.html). Talk about weaponizing a biological agent. ---
**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 27, 2020, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40856 "2020-02-27T15:48:54Z")
[The CDC has identified a new case of coronavirus in California, origin unknown at this time.](https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/27/health/us-cases-coronavirus-community-transmission/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40857 "2020-02-27T16:25:48Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I guess trump put the best brain he had available on the problem, amirite? :rolleyes: He might as well put Pence on the job; as far as I can tell, he’s done fuck-all since taking office to justify his government paycheck. Normally, VP’s are given _some_ project to keep them busy; like “reducing government waste” or “going to the moon”. I literally can’t think of a single thing Pence has done, other than gaze at Trump adoringly. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40858 "2020-02-27T16:28:37Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > The Trump administration is telling Congressional Democrats that unless they cut subsidies for heat from low-income people, he will [continue to hold up emergency funding to prepare the US for its possibility](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/trump-administration-coronavirus-budget-response.html). > > Talk about weaponizing a biological agent. [What - again?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/) > [@Snopes](#): > > It’s true that the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic and did not replace it > [@](#): > > Legum stated in a follow-up tweet, “Trump also cut funding for the CDC, forcing the CDC to cancel its efforts to help countries prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics in 39 of 49 countries in 2018. Among the countries abandoned? China.” That was confirmed in 2018 reports saying that funding for the CDC’s global disease outbreak prevention efforts were cut by 80%, which included the agency’s efforts in China. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40859 "2020-02-27T16:49:58Z")
I think it was on another board where some body was celebrating those cuts - why should the US spend money preventing people in other countries from getting sick. It is well know that pathogens are strict respecters of national boundaries, dating all the way back to the Black Plague (and undoubtedly before that). ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40860 "2020-02-27T16:59:58Z")
More shit that can happen quietly in the night… [The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that the Trump administration can withhold grant money to cities and states that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials](https://www.iheart.com/content/2020-02-26-court-rules-trump-administration-can-withhold-grants-from-sanctuary-cities/). Just ever-tightening those fucking screws… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40861 "2020-02-27T17:01:45Z")
[![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7d/11/73/7d1173ae5d6281ef3d3a8a02e3f95a03.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7d/11/73/7d1173ae5d6281ef3d3a8a02e3f95a03.jpg) We have more clarity. We already knew that we were doomed, but now at least we know precisely why, and approximately when! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40862 "2020-02-27T18:54:51Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > He might as well put Pence on the job; as far as I can tell, he’s done fuck-all since taking office to justify his government paycheck. Normally, VP’s are given _some_ project to keep them busy; like “reducing government waste” or “going to the moon”. I would certainly support a project to send Pence to the moon, provided that he never returned. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40863 "2020-02-27T19:15:09Z")
Ya know, I along with the rest of you have been watching this administration in horrified disbelief for the last three years, thinking “People won’t tolerate this latest clusterfuck…this has got to be the thing that ends the nightmare, right?”; and coming to the realization that yes, in fact, people will tolerate a shit ton more clusterfuckery than I had thought possible. And dejectedly realizing that if Trump decides to stay in office past the end of his term, a lot of people will support that (democracy be damned) and the nightmare might never end. But this feels different. This feels like the thing that might, actually, bring Trump down. If the virus halts international travel and trade, worldwide economies take a big hit, people start dying over here, and the Administration does nothing but hem and haw and step on its dick…there will be consequences. Consequences beyond Trump’s ability to spin or his minions’ ability to control. Big business and donors will be furious, jobs will be lost, money will be lost, big money…big-time political donors might turn on Trump…oh, and did I mention people will die? That’s going to piss a few voters off. This feels different. This is not political maneuvering. This is a force of nature coming at us. This feels like…like…divine retribution??? Could there be something in that after all? Did not see this coming, although maybe I should have, given this Administration’s hostility to science, medicine, health care and expertise in competent managment of government operations. And I can’t say I’d be happy if it came about this way, considering the great pain it would cause. But the end of the Trump Administration would be, undoubtedly, a silver lining. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/40864 "2020-02-27T19:15:54Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > I would certainly support a project to send Pence to the moon, provided that he never returned. Just put him on the M.T.A. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2042) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2044)