# 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:** 2094
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41866 "2020-03-27T06:00:41Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Makes one wonder when Tony Fauci will be shown the door. > [@dasmoocher](#): > > And Trump will say he knows more about infectious disease than anybody, so who needs Fauci? (Has Trump already said that yet?) I guess at least Lou Dobbs is saying something like it: [As Trump signals readiness to break with experts, his online base assails Fauci](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-trump-signals-readiness-to-break-with-experts-his-online-base-assails-fauci/2020/03/26/3802de14-6df6-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html) > [@](#): > > A cadre of right-wing news sites pulled from the fringes in recent years through repeated mention by President Trump is now taking aim at Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, who has given interviews in which he has tempered praise for the president with doubts about his pronouncements. > > Although both men are seeking to tamp down the appearance of tension — “Great job,” Trump commended the doctor during the White House’s briefing on Tuesday — the president is increasingly chafing against medical consensus. He has found support from a chorus of conservative commentators who have cheered his promise to get the U.S. economy going again as well as his decision to tout possible coronavirus treatments not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. > > “The president was right, and frankly Fauci was wrong,” Lou Dobbs said Monday on his show on the Fox Business Network, referring to the use of experimental medicine. > > Beyond prime-time television, however, the disregard for expert guidance being pushed by some conservative and libertarian voices goes further — aimed not simply at proving Fauci wrong but at painting him as an agent of the “deep state” that Trump has vowed to dismantle. The smear campaign taking root online, and laying the groundwork for Trump to cast aside the experts on his own coronavirus task force, relies centrally on the idea that there is no expertise that rises above partisanship, and that everyone has an agenda. > > … > > Peter Barry Chowka, whose Twitter bio boasts that he has been retweeted by the president, recently referred to Fauci, who has advised multiple presidents of both parties, as a “Deep-State Hillary Clinton-loving stooge.” Trump has not brought these attacks to his own Twitter feed, but he has surfaced previous pieces by Chowka, including praise for Sean Hannity of Fox News. Who knew? Fauci, who has led NIAID since the '80s, is a “Deep State” plant whose goal is not to combat this outbreak but to bring down Trump by advocating preventive measures that will crash the economy. This really will be a case of Trump supporters cutting off their nose to spite their face. Edit: I just saw this video from The Young Turks: [Dr. Fauci Conspiracy Theories Spread By Right-wingers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBH1s-yhBw) ---
**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:** [March 27, 2020, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41867 "2020-03-27T09:50:40Z")
I think it might be about time to invoke “national emergency” and use that as authorization to put those nitwit conspiracy theorists in prison for spreading their nonsense. Oops. My mistake. Their top nut is the freaking president of the United States. We’re doomed. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2020, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41868 "2020-03-27T10:46:51Z")
Damnit. Duplicate. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2020, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41869 "2020-03-27T11:12:36Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > [I saw this clip today.](https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/03/26/peter-navarro-intv-supply-of-masks-medical-supplies-sot-ath-vpx.cnn) Great clip! I especialy enjoyed that twerp saying “the Biden administration”. Maybe he realizes his boss is on the way out. The twerp also stated as fact that “GM and Ford are repurposing factories now”. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41870 "2020-03-27T12:11:53Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Great clip! I especialy enjoyed that twerp saying “the Biden administration”. Maybe he realizes his boss is on the way out. > > The twerp also stated as fact that “GM and Ford are repurposing factories now”. Yeah, and that GM will supply, by the end of the year, a few thousand ventilators that are needed in the next 2-3 weeks. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2020, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41871 "2020-03-27T12:44:29Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Great clip! I especialy enjoyed that twerp saying “the Biden administration”. Maybe he realizes his boss is on the way out. > > The twerp also stated as fact that “GM and Ford are repurposing factories now”. All of Trump’s pressers seem like he’s plugging American private enterprise. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41872 "2020-03-27T12:52:27Z")
A Single Ventilator for Multiple Simulated Patients to Meet Disaster Surge. Greg Neyman, M.D., Charlene Babcock Irwin, M.D. Academy of Emergency Medicine, November 2006, Vol 13, No. 11, [www.emg.org](http://www.emg.org) [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1197/j.aem.2006.05.009](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1197/j.aem.2006.05.009) Her youtube vid about the kluge, in which she notes that it succeeded in the Vegas massacre, and she also notes that since all the patients would be suffering from the same virus, cross-contamination is not as big a risk in the context of them dying without the ventilator: Perth, Ontario, Dr. Alain Guthier, an anesthetist with a PhD in respiratory mechanics, has rigged up one. > **[Perth doctor rigs up solution to feared ventilator shortage | CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/perth-ventilator-covid-19-1.5501891)** > > A doctor in eastern Ontario has improvised a way to double his small hospital's ventilator capacity in preparation for a possible COVID-19 outbreak. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41873 "2020-03-27T13:23:43Z")
Canadian retired respiratory therapist has designed a ventilator and made it open source. > **[Open Source Covid-19 Ventilator Canada](https://open-source-covid-19-ventilator-canada.mn.co/)** > > Open-sourced life support ventilator design details and prototype test results. Simple, reliable electrically-powered ventilator for Pandemic event preparation with low cost to manufacture. > **[There aren't enough ventilators for coronavirus, so a London, Ont., man...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/pandemic-ventilator-design-covid19-1.5511412)** > > Retired respiratory therapist John Strupat said he decided to make his design open source after he failed to get any kind of serious consideration to make the life-saving device for Canadian or U.S. governments. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41874 "2020-03-27T13:31:12Z")
Dipstick turns down NY request for ventilators because he just doesn’t believe they need that many. So it’s the word of health experts vs Donald’s gut as to who gets to live. Be honest, Oranganus, it’s because you’re pissed that Cuomo looks like the leader that you can never be. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41875 "2020-03-27T13:34:04Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Yeah, and that GM will supply, by the end of the year, a few thousand ventilators that are needed in the next 2-3 weeks. [After Considering $1 Billion Price Tag for Ventilators, White House Has Second Thoughts](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/us/politics/coronavirus-ventilators-trump.html). $1 Billion is too much money for 80,000 ventilators for some to stomach. We are edging closer to being able to calculate the exact value that Republicans put on human lives. Too be fair, this might be one of the ‘death panels’ that they told us were coming. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41876 "2020-03-27T13:39:57Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Yeah, and that GM will supply, by the end of the year, a few thousand ventilators that are needed in the next 2-3 weeks. [Here’s another clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIgq3NNPvXw) from the progressive David Packman show (~4:00 mins long) where he shows Trump, besides being amazed there are infra-red thermometers, talking about how the US will soon be producing a lot of complex and sophisticated machines that are known as ventilators. Then Mike Pence at the podium says that ventilators are not complicated and companies are surging forward to produce them. So, Trump: ventilators are complex, sophisticated, computerized machines. Pence, immediately later: ventilators are simple and easy to make. Why, it’s like their message is confused. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41877 "2020-03-27T13:48:41Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > > [@El\_Kabong](#): > > > > Yeah, and that GM will supply, by the end of the year, a few thousand ventilators that are needed in the next 2-3 weeks. > > [After Considering $1 Billion Price Tag for Ventilators, White House Has Second Thoughts](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/us/politics/coronavirus-ventilators-trump.html). > > $1 Billion is too much money for 80,000 ventilators for some to stomach. We are edging closer to being able to calculate the exact value that Republicans put on human lives. > > Too be fair, this might be one of the ‘death panels’ that they told us were coming. Honestly, I would have cancelled the deal because spending a billion dollars to retool an auto parts factory to perhaps be able to make ventilators months from now (by which, perhaps, the crisis is past) seems a wasted effort. Could the existing ventilator production lines be expanded or duplicated more quickly? ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41878 "2020-03-27T13:55:59Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > [After Considering $1 Billion Price Tag for Ventilators, White House Has Second Thoughts](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/us/politics/coronavirus-ventilators-trump.html). > > $1 Billion is too much money for 80,000 ventilators for some to stomach. We are edging closer to being able to calculate the exact value that Republicans put on human lives. > > Too be fair, this might be one of the ‘death panels’ that they told us were coming. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” he said, a reference to New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appealed for federal help in obtaining them. “You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’” Yes. There are not enough. Even major hospitals may only have a few. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41879 "2020-03-27T13:57:38Z")
Except GM is likely to get a bail out when this is over. Might as well get something useful out of the pile of cash. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41880 "2020-03-27T14:00:50Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” he said, a reference to New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appealed for federal help in obtaining them. “You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’” > > Yes. There are not enough. Even major hospitals may only have a few. > > THAT IS THE PROBLEM. It continues to amaze me how people can’t grok the concept of exponential growth. Like we’ve gone from 100 cases to 1000 cases in a few days and people have just normalized to that new number, “Well 1000 cases isn’t too bad.” They just seem to be incapable of continuing that line in their heads up to 100,000 and see the inevitable future of people dying in hallways. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41881 "2020-03-27T14:10:43Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > It continues to amaze me how people can’t grok the concept of exponential growth. Like we’ve gone from 100 cases to 1000 cases in a few days and people have just normalized to that new number, “Well 1000 cases isn’t too bad.” They just seem to be incapable of continuing that line in their heads up to 100,000 and see the inevitable future of people dying in hallways. Let’s face it: planning ahead has _never_ been their strong suit. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41882 "2020-03-27T14:13:51Z")
I guess if this is another aspect of Trump’s fundamental stupidity. Both Forbe’s and Bloomberg have run articles stating that if Trump had left his daddy’s money in a conservative stock portfolio, he’d have between 4 and 10 times as much money as he says he has. Which is probably a lot more money than he really has. I think he really, fundamentally doesn’t understand exponential growth. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41883 "2020-03-27T14:14:57Z")
Or for that matter the multiplication tables. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41884 "2020-03-27T14:19:37Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > Or for that matter the multiplication tables. Who knew multiplication could be so complicated. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41885 "2020-03-27T14:21:36Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Who knew multiplication could be so complicated. All those numbers… who knew there were so many numbers?? Make them go away! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2093) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2095)