# 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:** 447
**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:** [July 30, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8924 "2017-07-30T20:39:54Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I’m not sure I understand how Trump plans to do this. Congress controls the money, right? Is this just another temper tantrum or something he could actually do? Expect another EO soon, cousin. As I’ve mentioned before, Мистер Ориндж really believes that being president is exactly like Cecil B. DeMille’s pharaoh (“So shall it be written; so shall it be done”). The twerp is an illiterate (at the very least, functionally illiterate) and seems to believe the written word, most especially _his_ written word, has an unconquerable magic. This very well might be why he freaks out more at his executive orders being challenged more than he freaks out about insults to his petty ego. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8925 "2017-07-30T20:53:29Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I’m not sure I understand how Trump plans to do this. Congress controls the money, right? Is this just another temper tantrum or something he could actually do? He probably could, with a simple regulatory change. Back in 2013, the Office of Personnel Management issued a [regulation](http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/reid-says-issue-with-health-care-for-lawmakers-staff-is-resolved) allowing the ‘employer’ health insurance contribution for congress to go directly to the D.C. exchange to offset premiums. As far as I know, no other employer health benefit is handled this way so I can imagine PR along the lines of ‘Nobody else gets this. Unfair!’ ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8926 "2017-07-30T20:57:23Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > My sympathies and commiserations to both you and to Aspenglow. > > More broadly: the Republican’s lizard-brain fear-of-“free-loaders” has drowned any common sense they might once have possessed: economies don’t thrive when people are terrified of health-care bankruptcy. Free markets don’t work when decisions are based on ‘how can I make sure my family has health care?’—instead of on shrewd observation of the marketplace, sound business principles, and innovative ideas. > > The GOP is anti-business. Thank you. Yes, the GOP really is anti-business. Most people I know who balk at self-employment is for exactly that reason: Fear of health care bankruptcy. When my late husband migrated here from Australia and I told him one of us had to keep/have a job that offered health insurance benefits in order to have coverage, he just couldn’t understand why Americans thought they had the “greatest health care in the world.” I carried the load for us by staying employed in government while simultaneously growing my little business as my husband got his feet under him in a new land. He paid heed to our insurance concerns and at age 48, went and wore an orange apron with a national home improvement company, strictly for the benefits. We each kept benefits offered through our employers in those years since employers paid 100% of the cost of coverage for their employees. When we decided to move to Oregon, he stayed on with the orange apron company for the benefits so I could be self-employed full time. By then, he had risen within the company to the point that he no longer wore an orange apron. Though he encouraged me to give up my business as we no longer needed my income, I just couldn’t quite do that. Good thing, as it turned out when he died very suddenly and left me with one-third of the household income we enjoyed together. As a self-employed person, the ACA has been a salvation for people like me and **Happy Lendervedder**. And it’s why I find it particularly galling when the likes of Kellyanne Conway say I should just go “get a job.” ---
**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:** [July 30, 2017, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8927 "2017-07-30T22:50:43Z")
In Beauregard’s home state, the vultures circle, [preening themselves](http://www.npr.org/2017/07/30/540050929/alabama-gop-senate-candidates-campaign-to-be-trumps-ally-in-congress) for преЦАРдент Trump. > [@](#): > > To one extent or another, the top three contenders in the crowded [Alabama] Republican primary are trying to cast themselves as stalwart allies of the president or as embodiments of Trump’s unfiltered, take-no-prisoners style of politics. ---
**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:** [July 30, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8928 "2017-07-30T22:52:24Z")
The American system is idiotic. Who knows how much stronger our economy would be if this stupid (and often deadly) allegiance to _middlemen_—the Middleman must be paid!!!—could be consigned to the medical-waste bin of history. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8929 "2017-07-31T00:30:40Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > More broadly: the Republican’s lizard-brain fear-of-“free-loaders” has drowned any common sense they might once have possessed: economies don’t thrive when people are terrified of health-care bankruptcy. The effects are broader (though less intense) even for people who do have reasonably decent income and insurance – after any significant medical procedure, the endless stream of “not covered” copayments the providers inevitably pull out of their asses over the next few months makes it impossible to budget normally, adding another layer of depressed consumer confidence and economic weakness. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8930 "2017-07-31T00:52:45Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > The effects are broader (though less intense) even for people who do have reasonably decent income and insurance – after any significant medical procedure, the endless stream of “not covered” copayments the providers inevitably pull out of their asses over the next few months makes it impossible to budget normally, adding another layer of depressed consumer confidence and economic weakness. Agreed. I’m not advocating for the GOP’s Most-Scary-Thing (people getting Free Stuff). I’m saying that health care is more like _infrastructure_ than it is like entertainment or fashion or sports or the other things people spend their discretionary income on. If you want a thriving, vibrant, growing economy, then you don’t make roads or flood-control or defense into for-profit industries. You may partner with for-profit industries in the pursuit of the most effective way of providing these things—but you _do_ provide them, because they are the foundation on which an economy can grow. Same thing with health care. It’s foundational. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8931 "2017-07-31T01:48:58Z")
> [@simster](#): > > You got a cite for any of this? > [@running\_coach](#): > > [The Week](http://theweek.com/speedreads/715060/fox-news-jesse-watters-pines-trump-dictator-maybe-could-repeal-obamacare) “A lot of people wish President Trump was a dictator, maybe we could repeal Obamacare. It would be a lot easier that way.” On his show, "The Five” ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8932 "2017-07-31T01:54:03Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Is anyone else reminded of the fate of the leaders of the NKVD under Stalin? > > Yagoda did Stalin’s dirty work until he wasn’t useful anymore/knew too much. At which point, Yagoda was put on show trial by his successor, Yezhov, and executed. > > Yezhov did Stalin’s dirty work until he wasn’t useful anymore/knew too much. At which point, Yezhov was put on show trial by his successor, Beria, and executed. > > Beria was executed shortly after Stalin’s reign ended. His life was likely prolonged by WWII and its aftermath. > > In a similar but less homicidal manner, if someone takes a job to serve Trump, how can they expect they won’t be chewed up and spat out whenever he feels like it, for any reason, including Trump showing he’ll do that for no reason at all? Meanwhile in Russia, Putin, responding to sanctions, orders U.S. to cut diplomatic staff by 755. Putin said Sunday that Russia had run out of patience waiting for relations with the United States to “improve”. He means, for his stooge Trump to deliver the goods. > **[Putin, Responding to Sanctions, Orders U.S. to Cut Diplomatic Staff by 755...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/world/europe/russia-sanctions-us-diplomats-expelled.html)** > > The move was a major escalation in the Kremlin’s fight against a law passed in Congress last week expanding sanctions against Russia. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8933 "2017-07-31T01:55:10Z")
Yup, the Right accuses Dems of wanting a dictator, but they’re the ones who constantly opine about how things would be easier if their guy was one. It isn’t mere projection, it is a tactic. Accuse your opponents of the stuff you’re actually doing. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8934 "2017-07-31T01:57:30Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Okay, good for Representative Waters for pressing Secretary Mnuchin and not getting bogged down in political doubletalk, but good lord is that a terribly written article. \*\*“We don’t want to take my time up with how great I am,” \*\* Compare THAT with how the fucking Cheeto In Chief wants things to be. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8935 "2017-07-31T02:01:59Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > If Trumps follows through with his threat for a certain amount of time, his supporters will _feel_ it. > > That would make a difference. No, as always, they will blame the liberals. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8936 "2017-07-31T02:03:18Z")
We’ve been so distracted by Trump’s colossal incompetence in putting a staff together and his fecklessness in domestic affairs that we’re forgetting the rising costs of having a shit gibbon running foreign affairs. Russia is now expelling 700+ US diplomats > **[Putin orders cut of 755 personnel at U.S. missions](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/putin-orders-cut-of-755-personnel-at-us-missions/2017/07/30/8a4b0044-7555-11e7-8c17-533c52b2f014_story.html?utm_term=.e4e7bf289906)** > > The move signals the end of hopes for better relations with Washington. North Korea is now nearly a gold member of the nuclear club > **[North Korea: US says 'no value' in UN security council meeting](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40768870)** > > The US ambassador to the UN urges China to "seriously challenge" North Korea over missile launches. And now China is basically starting to grow weary of trying to put out the Trumpster fire. > **[China reveals newest weapons in huge military parade](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-shows-off-military-might-as-tensions-flare-over-north-korea-a7867241.html)** > > Premier Xi Jinping presided over war training exercises which included a mock-target of Taiwan's presidential palace The world today is looking more and more like the world of 1910. We’re heading toward a massive global political crisis and we have absolutely the worst person imaginable dealing with this situation. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8937 "2017-07-31T02:03:42Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Exactly what I came to post. I hope he fucking does it. It will hurt me, but I’ll weather it. It will disproportionately hurt his dumbass, drooling supporters in a way that nothing else has to date to drive home the point that Fuckwit Tiny Dick doesn’t give a _shit_ about them. Remember months ago, when I myself said, Trump would fuck them all and they deserved it??? Here it comes. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8938 "2017-07-31T02:08:22Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Yup, the Right accuses Dems of wanting a dictator, but they’re the ones who constantly opine about how things would be easier if their guy was one. > > It isn’t mere projection, it is a tactic. Accuse your opponents of the stuff you’re actually doing. It really is goddamned crazy. I just can’t wrap my head around it, and how it’s happening here. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8939 "2017-07-31T02:19:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It really is goddamned crazy. I just can’t wrap my head around it, and how it’s happening here. They’ve been working up to it for decades. Sadly, a coalescence of interests occurred at exactly the wrong moment, and now here we are. I was pleased to see a commentator this morning on one of the news shows calling this out for precisely what it is: Fascism. It was being discussed in the context of Sinclair News Group taking over 70% of local television stations and their requirement to now broadcast Boris Epshsteyn’s Trump propaganda pieces on the local news 9 times per week. [How Boris Epshteyn and Sinclair News Group Bring Trump Propaganda to Local News](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/07/how_boris_epshteyn_and_sinclair_bring_trump_propaganda_to_local_news.html) This is what is happening in our country _now_. We need to recognize it for what it is, and fight it with everything we’ve got. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2017, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8940 "2017-07-31T02:21:04Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Yup, the Right accuses Dems of wanting a dictator, but they’re the ones who constantly opine about how things would be easier if their guy was one. > > It isn’t mere projection, it is a tactic. Accuse your opponents of the stuff you’re actually doing. I’ve been saying this. The Right knows that a majority of people aren’t buying their bullshit, so they’re going to change the rules so that majority rule no longer matters. Wanna know why Trump acts like an authoritarian? Because a lot of people voted for an authoritarian. They just are stupid enough to believe that he was sent by God to make liberal snowflakes cry and that he’ll never screw conservatives. Note to conservatives: authoritarians almost always come to power with some form of consent. They often have a lot of ‘friends’ to start with, but by the time it’s over, almost everyone’s on their shit list. Ask Russia. Ask Venezuela. Ask Germany. Ask Turkey. Closer to home, ask Sean Spicer. Ask Reince Priebus. Ask Jeff Sessions. All were supporters of Trump, all on his shitlist now. Because authoritarians see everyone as a potential threat. Today, American authoritarians fire people. Tomorrow, American’s authoritarians might send people before a firing squad. But go ahead, just keep watching Fox News and live in a parallel universe where time flows backwards. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8941 "2017-07-31T02:36:06Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Agreed. > > I’m not advocating for the GOP’s Most-Scary-Thing (people getting Free Stuff). I’m saying that health care is more like _infrastructure_ than it is like entertainment or fashion or sports or the other things people spend their discretionary income on. If you want a thriving, vibrant, growing economy, then you don’t make roads or flood-control or defense into for-profit industries. You may partner with for-profit industries in the pursuit of the most effective way of providing these things—but you _do_ provide them, because they are the foundation on which an economy can grow. > > Same thing with health care. It’s foundational. Yes. This. And the Democrats have failed to convey this. They let the Republicans control the debate by framing healthcare as an “entitlement”. Then they message in a totally reactive way, talking about all the people that will be hurt because they will lose their entitlements. Very frustrating. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2017, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8942 "2017-07-31T03:46:15Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > They’ve been working up to it for decades. Sadly, a coalescence of interests occurred at exactly the wrong moment, and now here we are. > > I was pleased to see a commentator this morning on one of the news shows calling this out for precisely what it is: Fascism. It was being discussed in the context of Sinclair News Group taking over 70% of local television stations and their requirement to now broadcast Boris Epshsteyn’s Trump propaganda pieces on the local news 9 times per week. > > [How Boris Epshteyn and Sinclair News Group Bring Trump Propaganda to Local News](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/07/how_boris_epshteyn_and_sinclair_bring_trump_propaganda_to_local_news.html) > > This is what is happening in our country _now_. We need to recognize it for what it is, and fight it with everything we’ve got. In case you missed it, from a couple weeks ago: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=830653](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=830653) ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/8943 "2017-07-31T04:00:20Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > In case you missed it, from a couple weeks ago: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=830653](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=830653) Thank you, yes, I did see your thread on the subject. I commented there, too. I remember discussing it previously but wouldn’t have remembered where to find the thread on a bet. 🙂 I believe it’s so important for people to be aware of this stuff. I hope you don’t mind I posted about it again in a Pit thread without referencing your prior thread on the subject. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=446) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=448)