# 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:** 2232
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44627 "2020-06-12T18:10:18Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Here’s a video that plays trump’s idiotic comments at the Dallas roundtable about how “beautiful” it was to see the National Guard cutting through protesters “like butter”, intercut with scenes of police and the guard brutally dealing with protesters. It’s pretty damning and should be played on media outlets everywhere constantly until the election: > > [https://twitter.com/i/status/1271246554557378560](https://twitter.com/i/status/1271246554557378560) > > #UglyPresident When Individual 1 went to Dallas to speak about policing, he didn’t invite the Dallas Police Chief, the Dallas County Sheriff, or the Dallas DA. All of whom are, I’m surely entirely coincidentally, black. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44628 "2020-06-12T18:15:42Z")
Let’s drug test welfare recipients and make them work when they’re disabled to keep their medicaid. Let’s also keep the recipients of billions of dollars in aid a total secret. > **[Trump Administration Refuses To Disclose Which Businesses Received $500...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-ppp-loan-businesses-secret_n_5ee26407c5b6fdbc0a8e59ac)** > > The move will prevent oversight of 4.5 million businesses that took a government Paycheck Protection Program loan. One critic called it "unconscionable, jaw-dropping corruption." Remember when conservatives gave a toss about personal and fiscal “responsibility”? I don’t either. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44629 "2020-06-12T18:17:10Z")
I picture him barricaded in the Oval (chairs under the doorknobs) with a horde of Russian prostitutes running around, shall we say, marking their territory. _Other_ Russian prostitutes, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44630 "2020-06-12T18:33:00Z")
Washington Post announces a soon-to-be-released book: [Melania Trump was in no rush to move into the White House. That’s when she renegotiated her prenup, a new book says.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/melania-book-art-of-her-deal-prenup-white-house/2020/06/11/ce63ec02-abec-11ea-94d2-d7bc43b26bf9_story.html), _WaPo_, June 12, 2020. Amazon page: [The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump.](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1982113405?ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1982113405) by Mary Jordan, coming out June 16, 2020. The WaPo article seems to suggest that Melania is an ambitious and hard-driving person in her own right, and much more a supporter of Donald than we commonly think. She has enough influence and leverage that she could, and did, force Donald to renegotiate her pre-nup with him, largely to assure a better inheritance for Barron and his place in the Trump Organization. > [@Excerpt from the description on the Amazon page:](#): > > Based on interviews with more than one hundred people in five countries, The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump draws an unprecedented portrait of the first lady. While her public image is of an aloof woman floating above the political gamesmanship of Washington, behind the scenes Melania Trump is not only part of President Trump’s inner circle, but for some key decisions she has been his single most influential adviser. > > [. . .] > > The picture of Melania Trump that emerges in The Art of Her Deal is one of a woman who is savvy, steely, ambitious, deliberate, and who plays the long game. And while it is her husband who became famous for the phrase “the art of the deal,” it is she who has consistently used her leverage to get exactly what she wants. This is the story of the art of her deal. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44631 "2020-06-12T19:16:08Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Tied down is the only way Trump would make an appearance at somebody else’s inauguration. > > Trump will pull a John Adams and refuse to attend. Yeah, he won’t show up. He’ll just be a toddler about it. And I don’t see any way he’ll have to be forced out of the WH when he loses. He’ll have his businesses (such as they are) to get back to and will probably already have a deal on OAN for his very own show. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44632 "2020-06-12T19:21:32Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > He’ll have his businesses (such as they are) to get back to and will probably already have a deal on OAN for his very own show. And hopefully a prison stay as a ‘guest’ of the State of New York. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44633 "2020-06-12T19:32:13Z")
Instead of “The Apprentice”, Mark Burnette should offer him a new show called “The Convict”. That, I would watch (just not at dinner time) ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44634 "2020-06-12T20:12:57Z")
This is pretty funny. 🙂 > [@](#): > > **[Trump aides have reportedly turned off notifications for his tweets: ‘What’s the point?’](https://theweek.com/speedreads/919501/trump-aides-have-reportedly-turned-notifications-tweets-whats-point)** > > President Trump is reportedly getting put on mute by his most loyal followers. > > Trump is known for having zero restraint when it comes to tweeting on @RealDonaldTrump, tossing around conspiracy theories and flat-out misinformation, sometimes in bulk. As multiple presidential aides tell ABC News, the rampant tweeting has led them to turn off notifications for Trump’s account, with one adviser asking “What’s the point?” > … Now if everybody else in the world would just put him on mute, we might get somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44635 "2020-06-12T20:30:52Z")
So Trump’s pissed about the CNN poll that shows him trailing Biden by 14 points. OAN promises to release a favorable poll. [Here’s what happened](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/11/trumps-most-loyal-media-ally-promised-pro-trump-poll-it-didnt-deliver-and-then-pulled-its-story/). > [@](#): > > Early Thursday afternoon, the poll came out. Conducted by Gravis Marketing, a pollster that earns a C in FiveThirtyEight’s ranking of pollsters, it was focused solely on Florida. > > It had Trump and Biden tied in the must-win state for Trump, a state Trump won narrowly four years ago. > > OAN produced a video segment on the poll, again featuring Rouz, which appeared on its website. Soon after it was published, though, the report was pulled. A tweet from Herring that apparently announced the results was also deleted. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44636 "2020-06-12T20:34:53Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > This is pretty funny. 🙂 Now if everybody else in the world would just put him on mute, we might get somewhere. I’m an avid Twitterer - well, Twitter reader anyway - and I don’t even follow him. Oh, I still see every steaming turd that flows from his thumbs, but it’s all splashed all over Twitter like so much diarrhea anyway, so why give him the numbers? ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44637 "2020-06-12T21:02:51Z")
Rasmussen polls, perhaps the most biased in favor of Trump polling outfit, has in their latest Trump job approval poll numbers of: 55% disapprove 43% approve Spread 12% This is the largest spread in the Rasmussen poll in over a year. Typically they are an outlier in polls, and show Trump with much better approval ratings that the average. I wonder if Trump is going to demand that they are unfair, and need to retract their latest poll? The last Fox news poll was 5/17 - 5/20 and showed: 54% disapprove 44% approve Spread 10% I wonder when Trump is going to lose his shit about Fox News again and demand that they make a poll that shows him doing better? ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44638 "2020-06-12T21:10:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Actually, there are 10 bases named for enemies of the United States of America. > > Fort Lee > Fort Hood > Fort Benning > Fort Gordon > Fort Bragg > Fort Polk > Fort Pickett > Fort A.P. Hill > Fort Rucker > Camp Beauregard > > We really should have a Fort Cornwallis and Camp Benedict Arnold too. You know, for some of these we could leave the name as is, but change who it’s named after: Fort Lee – Joseph Lee Fort Hood – James Hood Fort Gordon – Gordon Parks Fort Bragg – Janet Bragg Fort Polk – Elias Polk Fort Pickett – William (“Bill”) Pickett Fort Rucker – Henry A. Rucker ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44639 "2020-06-12T21:14:13Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Another possible reason for trump to be firing up his hardcore base so much is to intimidate potential Biden voters into staying home. I don’t know how realistic this scenario actually is, but I’ve heard talk of armed trump supporters possibly taking up posts just outside voting precincts to scare Biden voters off, especially voters of color. Is that crazy or could that actually be the America we’re living in now? If a bunch of guys in tacti-cool crap and MAGA hats were standing outside the polling booth trying to look intimidating and haranguing me to vote for Trump I’d say “OK”, go inside, and vote for whomever I damn well pleased and was planning to vote for anyway. But I’m white looking and they’d probably assumed I was on their side anyway. (For the record, I’m not) Might be a bit different for someone browner than I am. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44640 "2020-06-12T21:26:56Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Actually, there are 10 bases named for enemies of the United States of America. > > Fort Lee > Fort Hood > Fort Benning > Fort Gordon > Fort Bragg > Fort Polk > Fort Pickett > Fort A.P. Hill > Fort Rucker > Camp Beauregard > > We really should have a Fort Cornwallis and Camp Benedict Arnold too. A. P. Hill was killed when trying to get Union forces to surrender during the Third Battle of Petersburg and the fort is about halfway between there and his Culpeper, his birthplace. I’m okay with keeping the fort in his name. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44641 "2020-06-12T21:33:22Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > A. P. Hill was killed when trying to get Union forces to surrender during the Third Battle of Petersburg and the fort is about halfway between there and his Culpeper, his birthplace. > > I’m okay with keeping the fort in his name. Does anyone know the exact location of his demise? I’m sure everyone wants to know what a Hill dies on. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44642 "2020-06-12T21:44:27Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > You know, for some of these we could leave the name as is, but change who it’s named after: > > Fort Lee – Joseph Lee > > Fort Hood – James Hood > > Fort Gordon – Gordon Parks > > Fort Bragg – Janet Bragg > > Fort Polk – Elias Polk > > Fort Pickett – William (“Bill”) Pickett > > Fort Rucker – Henry A. Rucker I’ve been thinking about that very thing! Or we could go with musicians, and have Alvin Lee and Billy Bragg and Wilson Pickett and Darius Rucker… ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44643 "2020-06-12T21:59:23Z")
“After first announcing last year that the $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman was delayed due to technical difficulties, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has inched a bit closer to flat-out stating that technically the difficulty is that the Trump administration doesn’t like black people or women very much.” Maybe change the portrait to Hillary? "When asked if he personally agreed with President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign assertion that it was “political correctness” to replace Andrew Jackson, responsible for the genocide of countless indigenous people, with Harriet Tubman, who helped enslaved people escape to freedom, Mnuchin did some impressive dog-whistling in support of “preserving monuments” before saying that he had no opinion: “Mr. Mnuchin did compare changing the money to altering monuments in Washington, but then was careful to say that he was not taking any position on the matter.” Steve Munchkin - FECKLESS SHITBAG - apologies to other shitbags who would like to distance themselves from this loathsome **lickspittle**. #adultdiapersnocomment #freedomtopoop > **[Steven Mnuchin Says America Is Going to Keep the Portrait of a Genocidal...](https://jezebel.com/steven-mnuchin-says-america-is-going-to-keep-the-portra-1844012691)** > > After first announcing last year that the $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman was delayed due to technical difficulties, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has inched a bit closer to flat-out stating that technically the difficulty is that the Trump... ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44644 "2020-06-12T22:55:56Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > As I recall learning about that phase of California history, the Bear Flag rebels were a group of American businessmen in California who saw their financial interests being best served if they became part of the United States. > > Very soon after proclaiming the Bear Flag Republic, they entered into negotiations with the United States to submit to becoming an American state. This suggests that the United Stated at least implicitly recognized them. Yeah. No. This is wrong in just about all of its particulars, except that the participants did, in fact, desire to become part of the United States. The Bear Flag people were a pretty ragtag bunch comprising all sorts of settlers, soldiers, squatters, trappers, hunters and even runaway sailors. The nominal leader, Fremont, came rather late to the party, and accomplished very little before his group was incorporated into the actual US forces under Commander Sloat, who raised the American flag at Monterey on July 7, 1846. The US government denied that Fremont had any authority to act independently in northern California. The Bear Flaggers also had nothing to do with submitting to the United States, and no authority to claim any sovereignty over California territory. They were American citizens, and control and overnership of Alta California was ceded to the United States not by the Bear Flaggers, but by the nation of Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, signed at the end of the US-Mexican War in 1848. After that, California’s admission into the union involved a very similar process to other states, except that it was shaped by the national debate over the expansion of slavery and over the number of free states and slave states. A constitutional convention gathered (in Monterey) in 1849 to write a state constitution with the aim of applying for admission to the United States as a state. Congress admitted California as a free state in 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850. The region that became the state of California was much smaller than the original Mexican state of Alta California. The remainder of Alta California was split into two federal territories—the territories of Utah and New Mexico—which would later be split up even further into the southwestern states we’re familiar with today. None of this involved any negotiation between the United States and the Bear Flag Republic, which had ceased to exist even in the minds of its own “creators” when they joined the US forces under Sloat, three years before the constitutional convention and four years before the admission of California to the union. There was never an independent nation in anything but the imagination of a few score people, and even the California history textbook I have in front of me puts quotation marks around the word “republic” when talking about the Bear Flag Revolt. And, because this thread is about the Trump administration, fuck Trump for causing this hijack. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44645 "2020-06-12T23:06:58Z")
[U.S. health agency reverses Obamacare transgender protections](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-transgender/u-s-health-agency-reverses-obamacare-transgender-protections-idUSKBN23J37M?il=0) > [@](#): > > The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule on Friday that would lift anti-discrimination protections under Obamacare for transgender people and women seeking abortions. Bastards. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/44646 "2020-06-12T23:07:21Z")
It was my impression that the discovery of gold fast-tracked the application for statehood. I am working from memory here but I believe California was the only state which had never been a territory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2231) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2233)