# 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:** 297
**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:** [June 2, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5922 "2017-06-02T18:31:51Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > New question: Will the Supremes uphold the travel ban? > > This will be a test of/for Gorsuch. If he gives the ban a thumbs-down, I predict Trump will try to find a way to have him removed from the Court, maybe even disbarred and forced to get a job as a Wal-mart greeter. Remember how Trump thinks he can disband a federal court? Trump probably will launch a twitterstorm with “I’m firing the so-called supreme judge soon! Great!” ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5923 "2017-06-02T18:55:53Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Mike Pence can’t understand why the left is pushing a climate change agenda. > [Pence: ‘For Some Reason Or Another,’ The Left Cares About Climate Change (VIDEO) - TPM – Talking Points Memo](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pence-for-some-reason-left-climate-change) We like the earth. It’s where most of our stuff is. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5924 "2017-06-02T19:08:15Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Also it was something Obama did. The only coherent agenda that the GOP has had in the last eight years was to oppose Obama, and so Trump is still following that playbook. If during his presidency Obama had deflected an 50 mile wide asteroid that on course to impact in Kansas City, Trump would be calling NASA to see how it could be put back on course. The above observation is the only impetus I can see for Trump wanting to reinstate all previous sanctions against Cuba. Aside from turning another Obama advance around, the only result of this would be pleasing whatever rich 80+ Cuban expatriates are still around in Miami. ---
**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 2, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5925 "2017-06-02T19:08:39Z")
White House staff have got to know that the topic of climate change is a hot potato, yet they’re burning their hands as they continue holding it rather than settling the matter by asking Not-Hillary. Because that hot potato will explode if they do. ---
**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 2, 2017, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5926 "2017-06-02T19:10:43Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Great. Trump is both arrogant and insecure. It might be [worse than that](https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/23/donald-trump-speaking-style-interviews/) \*STAT reviewed decades of Trump’s on-air interviews and compared them to Q&A sessions since his inauguration. The differences are striking and unmistakable. Research has shown that changes in speaking style can result from cognitive decline. STAT therefore asked experts in neurolinguistics and cognitive assessment, as well as psychologists and psychiatrists, to compare Trump’s speech from decades ago to that in 2017; they all agreed there had been a deterioration, and some said it could reflect changes in the health of Trump’s brain. In interviews Trump gave in the 1980s and 1990s (with Tom Brokaw, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, Charlie Rose, and others), he spoke articulately, used sophisticated vocabulary, inserted dependent clauses into his sentences without losing his train of thought, and strung together sentences into a polished paragraph, which — and this is no mean feat — would have scanned just fine in print.… Now, Trump’s vocabulary is simpler. He repeats himself over and over, and lurches from one subject to an unrelated one … For decades, studies have found that deterioration in the fluency, complexity, and vocabulary level of spontaneous speech can indicate slipping brain function due to normal aging or neurodegenerative disease.… The experts noted clear changes from Trump’s unscripted answers 30 years ago to those in 2017, in some cases stark enough to raise questions about his brain health. They noted, however, that the same sort of linguistic decline can also reflect stress, frustration, anger, or just plain fatigue.… The change in linguistic facility could be strategic; maybe Trump thinks his supporters like to hear him speak simply and with more passion than proper syntax. “He may be using it as a strategy to appeal to certain types of people,” said (psychologist Ben) Michaelis.… (Neuropsychologist at U. of Wisconsin Sterling) Johnson cautioned that language can deteriorate for other reasons. “His language difficulties could be due to the immense pressure he’s under, or to annoyance that things aren’t going right and that there are all these scandals,” he said. “It could also be due to a neurodegenerative disease or the normal cognitive decline that comes with aging.” Trump will be 71 next month.\* So maybe the weight of the office is dragging him down. Or, maybe he is becoming senile. ---
**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 2, 2017, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5927 "2017-06-02T19:10:59Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > New question: Will the Supremes uphold the travel ban? I hope they refuse to hear the case and tell him to sod off. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5928 "2017-06-02T19:14:42Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Mike Pence can’t understand why the left is pushing a climate change agenda. > [Pence: ‘For Some Reason Or Another,’ The Left Cares About Climate Change (VIDEO) - TPM – Talking Points Memo](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pence-for-some-reason-left-climate-change) Oh, that shit about this being an “issue for the left in this country and around the world.” again. No Mister Pence, you second rate Clutch Cargo, it is an issue that researches that worked for Republican administrations or are Republican now also worry about. Scientists like Gilbert N. Plass, Richard Alley, James Hansen, Kerry Emanuel, Barry Bickmore, etc. [And one should not forget the scientists working at Exxon and other fossil fuel companies that told their executives decades ago where we were headed.](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/) ---
**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:** [June 2, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5929 "2017-06-02T19:17:48Z")
There is now literally nothing too stupid, too dsngerous, or too insane that Trump can do and still not lose his supporters. Why? Those fools are so invested in believing _they_ are not gullible and stupid that they must continue to rally around him. And he laps it up, all while continuing to openly shaft them. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5930 "2017-06-02T19:27:18Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > The Orange One in 2012: > > “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” > > The Orange One in 2014: > > “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice.” > > “NBC News just called it the great freeze - coldest weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?” > > “Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax!” > > “Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee - I’m in Los Angeles and it’s freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!” > > The Orange One in 2015: > > “Obama’s talking about all of this with the global warming and…a lot of it’s a hoax. It’s a hoax. I mean, it’s a money-making industry, OK? It’s a hoax, a lot of it.” > > The Orange One in 2016: > > “Well, I think the climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change. I’d be—received environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China. Obviously, I joke. But this is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change. They burn everything you could burn; they couldn’t care less. They have very—you know, their standards are nothing. But they—in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it’s very hard on our business.” > > Earth to Not-Hillary: China is part of the accords that you just pull out of! Did these so-called accords have any enforcement or penalties? Any concrete plans or targets? Besides empty symbolism what would these accords have accomplished? ---
**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 2, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5931 "2017-06-02T19:35:34Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Did these so-called accords have any enforcement or penalties? Any concrete plans or targets? And if not, why did Trump have to pull out of the accords before pulling his famous renegotiating out of his ass? ---
**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 2, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5932 "2017-06-02T19:36:36Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > I think the absolute opposite is true. He doesn’t understand \*any \*of this shit, and he’s terrified he’s gonna look like an idiot or worse, like he’s less than these people who actually read, and learn, and know. And so he overcompensates like a motherfuck. I think our two points of view aren’t mutually exclusive. He’s afraid of fucking up (but can’t admit it) AND he won’t take advice from anyone. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5933 "2017-06-02T19:55:38Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > And if not, why did Trump have to pull out of the accords before pulling his famous renegotiating out of his ass? This is a complex issue that has at _least_ 2 answers. 1. Obama was for it 2. Bannon told him to ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5934 "2017-06-02T20:20:36Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Mike Pence can’t understand why the left is pushing a climate change agenda. Oh, he understands. It just that he and DeVos and a few of the other fundmentalist apocalypters believe they’re going to be lifted bodily to Heaven before climate change effects are significant. Also, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny in conjunction will balance the budget as long as enough people lack dental coverage. It’s a solid plan. > [@Monty](#): > > There is now literally nothing too stupid, too dsngerous, or too insane that Trump can do and still not lose his supporters. Why? Those fools are so invested in believing _they_ are not gullible and stupid that they must continue to rally around him. And he laps it up, all while continuing to openly shaft them. It’s the Enron Effect: if you make a scam big enough, no one will dare disbelieve it, even though the only way that Trump is the “smartest guy in the room” is if you expel anything with more neural complexity than a flatworm. Stranger ---
**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 2, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5935 "2017-06-02T20:39:57Z")
I wonder whether Bannon prodded Trump to get out of the Paris agreement on two grounds: 1. It’s a promise kept to voters. 2. (And here’s the possibly more significant reason) It might expedite Steve Bannon’s apocalyptic “America v. The World” worldview becoming a reality, which in turn would enable the president to break other agreements, including NAFTA, WTO, and others. The US is likely to face a backlash over reneging on the Paris accord, and it further heightens insecurities felt by our trading and political partners. Even without explicit sanctions taken against the US, there is the very real threat of a grassroots backlash in countries all over the world - one in which masses of citizens foment anti-American product boycotts. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5936 "2017-06-02T20:43:25Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > IBannon believes that every treaty and every bureaucracy created after 1945 needs to be demolished. Replaced with what exactly? The Apocalypse. ETA-ha! hadn’t read your post above (was just responding to an obvious set-up line a few pages back). ---
**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 2, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5937 "2017-06-02T20:47:17Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > There is now literally nothing too stupid, too dsngerous, or too insane that Trump can do and still not lose his supporters. Why? Those fools are so invested in believing _they_ are not gullible and stupid that they must continue to rally around him. And he laps it up, all while continuing to openly shaft them. That’s because so far, there haven’t been any real consequences – these things take time. He’s still riding high on Obama’s economy and the delusional idiocy of Wall Street buying into this fantasy of Trump being a potential boon to the economy. I think it might have finally dawned on some people yesterday – like Lloyd Blankfein, like Elon Musk, and others – that this guy is every bit the fucking con artist that Mike Bloomberg said he was. But more to the point, going beyond economics, the reality is that Trump supporters are fine with what Trump has done because they are white Christian nationalists, and Trump has gone out of his way to bring back the 19th Century again. Better yet, Trump is acting like a battering ram for Christian zealots who’ve never had much use for civil liberties and Church-State separation anyway. The radicals have been perpetually frustrated by the institutions that have hitherto restrained the fanatical impulses and prevented us from becoming a God state. Trump is destroying those institutions. As Trump chips away at the fundamental structure of the Constitution, they see opportunity ahead beyond Trump to get the kind of Christian Republic of America they’ve always dreamed of. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5938 "2017-06-02T21:11:02Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I think our two points of view aren’t mutually exclusive. He’s afraid of fucking up (but can’t admit it) AND he won’t take advice from anyone. Oh, they’re absolutely compatible, I was just nitpicking the root cause, the aaah root Trumpness of it if you will. You believe he thinks himself a gigantic legend. I believe he’s been a terrified child his entire life. In any event, fuck but he’s a broken, broken person. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5939 "2017-06-02T21:14:42Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > We like the earth. It’s where most of our stuff is. Well, we still got a few knick-knacks left on the Moon. A whitened flag, a mirror, that kind of thing. You know, archaeological artefacts to show we were there once. Easier to get to than all the shit that’ll soon be submerged. ---
**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 2, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5940 "2017-06-02T21:16:44Z")
Yeah, but there is that thing under crater Tycho. We need to get up there and [del]unearth[/del] unmoon that thing. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2017, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/5941 "2017-06-02T21:21:20Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > But more to the point, going beyond economics, the reality is that Trump supporters are fine with what Trump has done because they are white Christian nationalists, and Trump has gone out of his way to bring back the 19th Century again. Better yet, Trump is acting like a battering ram for Christian zealots who’ve never had much use for civil liberties and Church-State separation anyway. The radicals have been perpetually frustrated by the institutions that have hitherto restrained the fanatical impulses and prevented us from becoming a God state. Trump is destroying those institutions. As Trump chips away at the fundamental structure of the Constitution, they see opportunity ahead beyond Trump to get the kind of Christian Republic of America they’ve always dreamed of. Yep. I’ve said it from the moment that the bigoted birther Trump tossed his dime-store rug into the ring and I’ll continue to say it til my dying day–Trump voters really only care about one thing: his prejudices are their prejudices, which he promised to act on. As long as he’s screwing over Muslims, the Trump voters are orgasming. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=296) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=298)