# 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:** 2142
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42827 "2020-04-24T15:26:38Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Man, at least Pickles and Nathan only suggested drinking bleach. > > You’re officially less intelligent than Dethklok, Trump! > [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > “It’s mostly water. And we are mostly water. Therefore, we are bleach.” 😃 > [@Pickles the drummer](#): > > No! Drink the bleach! [Nathan’s experience drinking bleach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqbn7oxXh38) is one of my favorite scenes from that show’s entire run! ---
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42828 "2020-04-24T15:33:27Z")
> [@Borborygmi](#): > > Hindsight’s always 20/20. Ba-da-BING! 😃 ---
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42829 "2020-04-24T15:44:51Z")
But is 2020 Hindsight more poignant than 2019 hindsight? ---
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42830 "2020-04-24T16:03:44Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > This is just lowering the bar. We’re at the point where we’re saying, "Yes, the president (who’s supposed to know stuff) is a rambling moron, but he didn’t actually say something that can be technically defined as ‘rabid fruit bat-level batshit insane.’ I’m not lowering the bar. I explicitly said at the beginning that he continued to say stupid things. I’m just clarifying that he didn’t say the particular stupid thing that everyone is saying that he did. Explicitly denied that, in fact. I’m just making it clear what he did and did not say. That doesn’t imply that I’m excusing him or setting a lower standard of acceptability. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42831 "2020-04-24T16:16:21Z")
Yup, because the solution to unreasonable stupidity is inane pedantry. Got it. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42832 "2020-04-24T16:29:56Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m not lowering the bar. I explicitly said at the beginning that he continued to say stupid things. I’m just clarifying that he didn’t say the particular stupid thing that everyone is saying that he did. Explicitly denied that, in fact. > > I’m just making it clear what he did and did not say. That doesn’t imply that I’m excusing him or setting a lower standard of acceptability. You are technically correct. We should be discussing how irresponsible it is for a President, whose musing about the use of an actual drug already caused morons to take a related drug in aquarium cleanser form and die from it, to idly speculate about how nice it would be if we could do inject the stuff that kills viruses in a dish into our veins. It would be nice if we could show him the XKCD comic about guns killing viruses in vitro and have him learn something, but it is highly unlikely he would understand it, and quite possible he’d recommend it at a future ersatz rally. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42833 "2020-04-24T16:36:23Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I struggled with this same conundrum and came to the same conclusion. If he’s not motivated by money, what could it be? A: he’s so desperate to have some happy talk content that he repeats any nonsense he’s heard (so, he’s moved on to inhaling Lysol). He’s like human click-bait. “Doctors don’t want you to know this one weird trick to kill coronavirus!” He wants this whole thing to end like a movie. He suggested the oddball cure that solves everything with a neat bow and it all goes back to normal. Then he’s the hero for tweeting about the miracle and he gets his economy back and people shower him with praise. Roll credits. Reality has other ideas. ---
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42834 "2020-04-24T16:42:59Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Yup, because the solution to unreasonable stupidity is inane pedantry. > > Got it. “That’'s what I like about you, Tom. You never let your insensitivity get in the way of your stupidity.” “Right. There’s a time and a place for everything” –Stan Hart’s “The Great Gasbag”, satire of “The Great Gatsby” Mad #172 Jan. 1975 ---
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42835 "2020-04-24T16:49:43Z")
It’s neither pedantry nor inane, in any case. Trump says enough inane things himself that we shouldn’t have to make up or misinterpret his actual statements. It just gives them ammunition for things like this > Trump stands condemned and revealed as stupid by the thing he actually said. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42836 "2020-04-24T17:10:23Z")
Trump admits he said what everyone thinks he said, just that he was sarcastic. > ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42837 "2020-04-24T17:13:52Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Trump admits he said what everyone thinks he said, just that he was sarcastic. > > [https://twitter.com/PhilipRucker/status/1253727801871663104](https://twitter.com/PhilipRucker/status/1253727801871663104) As if he had an idea what sarcasm is… ---
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42838 "2020-04-24T17:21:37Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > As if he had an idea what sarcasm is… Ummmm… It was a pun! That’s the ticket! Or one of them things that’s the same backwards and forwards. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42839 "2020-04-24T17:21:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Trump stands condemned and revealed as stupid by the thing he actually said. And in this case, in a bizarre, mind-boggling clarification, he subsequently admits he meant precisely what everybody is implying, despite your rather lengthy (and yes, pedantic) response. He claims to have meant to suggest people should inject themselves with disinfectants. Sure, he admitted it in the context of walking it back and claiming he wasn’t serious, but he actually admits that’s what he was trying to say. I appreciate the need for accuracy and fairness in general, but in this case, you way overshot the mark. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42840 "2020-04-24T17:33:48Z")
There was a time where spelling potato as potatoe was intellectual grounds for making a republican unelectable; now they fall, lockstep, with a murderous buffoon who advocated mainlining disinfectant. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42841 "2020-04-24T17:57:50Z")
I think being sarcastic might be worse? Like, you’re talking to the press about a pandemic that killed 50,000 of your constituents, and you think it’s appropriate to troll them? ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42842 "2020-04-24T18:13:34Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Ummmm… It was a pun! That’s the ticket! Or one of them things that’s the same backwards and forwards. …do you mean a _palindrome??!!?_:dubious:😃 ---
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42843 "2020-04-24T18:15:56Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > As if he had an idea what sarcasm is… _[He knew all the tricks](https://youtu.be/rkUkVxM6R8o)_ ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42844 "2020-04-24T18:19:21Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I think being sarcastic might be worse? Like, you’re talking to the press about a pandemic that killed 50,000 of your constituents, and you think it’s appropriate to troll them? I think, and I’m going out on a limb here, that they’re trying to frame it like he was trolling the journalists. I’m not sure anyone on his communication staff understand they are only there to transmit the information on, and not because they like having to ask serious questions of a semi-literate circus monkey. ---
**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:** [April 24, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42845 "2020-04-24T18:22:38Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > …do you mean a _palindrome??!!?_:dubious:😃 Palindrome? The palindrome of Hydroxychloroquine is _Eniuqorolchyxodyh!!!_. It don’t work! (My god, that was oddly satisfying.) ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/42846 "2020-04-24T18:29:29Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I think being sarcastic might be worse? Like, you’re talking to the press about a pandemic that killed 50,000 of your constituents, and you think it’s appropriate to troll them? He thinks press-conferences are just like his rallies. He can say what he wants whenever. Joking about 50,000 dead is normal for him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2141) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2143)