# 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:** 532
**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:** [August 24, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10624 "2017-08-24T21:22:50Z")
> [@Crybaby\_Boobie](#): > > This article will explain how for you, TL: > > [http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/24/trump-family-history-confederate-statues-215525](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/24/trump-family-history-confederate-statues-215525) > > A person who has no interest in history of any kind. I urge everyone to read this article. With a barf bag at hand. The bastard acorn Donald didn’t fall far from the SOB tree named Fred: > [@](#): > > … > > The elder Trump was a domineering, politically connected developer who was used to getting what he wanted, and the sordid saga of how he reacted one time when he didn’t is highlighted in a display in the open-air exhibition hall of the Coney Island History Project. On Saturday, at the base of the Wonder Wheel and surrounded by the jangly sounds of hucksters’ carnival games, I read the organization’s account. For the small group dedicated to collecting and telling the rich history of this neighborhood at the southern tip of Brooklyn long known for its boardwalk and amusement areas, what Fred Trump did in the fall of 1966 clearly still feels like a fresh wound. > > Steeplechase Park, with its painted mechanical horses, gondola ride, parachute jump and arcade games, had been a Coney Island linchpin since 1897. But business was down. Its owners wanted out. They didn’t open in 1965 and instead sold the property to Trump for $2.5 million. Trump wanted to erect a “modern, Miami Beach-type high-rise apartment development,” but he encountered intense local pushback and ultimately was denied the necessary zoning change. “He could not overcome New Yorkers’ abiding nostalgia for the Coney Island that was,” Gwenda Blair wrote in her 2000 book, The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire. The past had gotten in his way. > > Spurned and sour about it, Fred Trump got his revenge by staging an almost adolescent spectacle, sending formal invitations to reporters and VIPs to join him in “marking” the “demolition of Steeplechase Park” and to “record the end of a nostalgic era in Coney Island history.” On a rainy September 21, 1966, as models in bikinis posed for pictures in the oversized shovel of a bulldozer, a grinning Trump held an ax and prodded his guests to whip bricks through the signature stained glass “funny face” on the façade of the park’s pavilion. The headline in the New York Times: “6 Bikinied Beauties Attend Demolishing Of Coney Landmark.” There’s no indication Trump’s ambitious middle son was present—that fall was his first semester at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School after transferring from Fordham in the Bronx. After the party, though, Fred Trump had the rest of the site leveled, ensuring it couldn’t be granted status as a historic landmark. In the end, Trump never got the zoning change he sought, building nothing—but nonetheless pocketing more than $1 million in profit when he sold the land to the city. > > “This sad event,” Charles Denson, the executive director of the Coney Island History Project, wrote in conjunction with the exhibition’s debut last summer, “was a vindictive and shameful act by a grown man behaving like a juvenile delinquent. It wasn’t business—it was personal. The desecration of an icon and the breaking of glass as public spectacle revealed a twisted personality that was unusual for even the most hard-bitten developers.”… ---
**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:** [August 24, 2017, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10625 "2017-08-24T21:52:56Z")
Thanks for posting that, ThelmaLou. Yes, the “bully” genes were clearly passed on in full. We’ve always known that the world has its share of mean-spirited, destructive, spiteful, greedy non-souled people. What most of us are still trying to digest is the horrifying reality that so large a number of our fellow-humans find those qualities to be _attractive_. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10626 "2017-08-24T22:15:17Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > What’s that got to do with Trump being an ignorant ass? Some of his odd statements could be solely for the benefit of the attention they garner. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10627 "2017-08-24T22:18:13Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Thanks for posting that, ThelmaLou. Yes, the “bully” genes were clearly passed on in full. > > We’ve always known that the world has its share of mean-spirited, destructive, spiteful, greedy non-souled people. > > What most of us are still trying to digest is the horrifying reality that so large a number of our fellow-humans find those qualities to be _attractive_. Yeah. They admire that shit. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2017, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10628 "2017-08-25T02:27:58Z")
Former Director of National Intelligence went on CNN yesterday (I think) to criticize Trump as being unfit for office. > Today, Trump tweeted “James Clapper, who famously got caught lying to Congress, is now an authority on Donald Trump. Will he show you his beautiful letter to me?” > So Clapper did. It was a letter he had written to both Trump and Clinton congratulating them on their victory and offering the full support of the intelligence community, but only the letter to Trump was delivered. > **[Trump Tweet-Dares Intel Chief to Release “Beautiful Letter” That Was, in Fact,...](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/08/trump-tweet-dares-clapper-to-release-beautiful-letter-that-was-a-form-letter.html)** > > One of President Trump’s favorite things is to tease private correspondence in public as a form of veiled threat or to sow doubt about whatever he’s... ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10629 "2017-08-25T02:43:10Z")
I am not sure what that letter from Clapper would prove even if it were a genuine complementary letter. Is it somehow better if someone who initially thought Donald Trump might be a good President now thinks he is unfit to be President? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10630 "2017-08-25T05:39:35Z")
So it looks like Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and wife’s “inspection” of Fort Knox [was just a ruse to go view the eclipse at taxpayer expense](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/mnuchin-viewed-eclipse-from-roof-of-fort-knox/2017/08/24/1b6ba9b4-8903-11e7-a50f-e0d4e6ec070a_story.html?utm_term=.427d9c5e30f2). ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10631 "2017-08-25T07:20:43Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > I am not sure what that letter from Clapper would prove even if it were a genuine complementary letter. Is it somehow better if someone who initially thought Donald Trump might be a good President now thinks he is unfit to be President? In Trump’s mind, I assume it went something like this; “In private, clapper wrote **me** a big beautiful letter about how great **I** am. he’s being mean to **me** now because he’s FAKE NEWS sucking up to the losers and haters who need an excuse for losing bigly to **MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.** ” ---
**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:** [August 25, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10632 "2017-08-25T15:25:18Z")
> **[Trump Staffer Responsible For Finding Positive News Stories Resigns](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-staffer-positive-news-stories-resigns_n_599fbb58e4b0821444c25fad?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009)** > > As director of rapid response, Andy Hemming was tasked with recirculating positive news to journalists. > [@](#): > > President Donald Trump’s administration parted ways with yet another staffer this week. > Politico reported Thursday that Andy Hemming resigned from his position as the White House communications team’s director of rapid response on Monday. > The 31-year-old former Republican National Committee staffer, who was profiled by Politico’s Annie Karni this month, was responsible for finding positive mainstream media news stories about the Trump administration and recirculating those reports to key reporters and talking heads. Hemming’s goal was to ultimately create more mainstream coverage about positive moments for the Trump administration on the very networks the president routinely bashes and refers to as “fake news,” according to Karni’s piece. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10633 "2017-08-25T18:10:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > [Trump Staffer Responsible For Finding Positive News Stories Resigns | HuffPost Latest News](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-staffer-positive-news-stories-resigns_us_599fbb58e4b0821444c25fad?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009) I believe as he carried his boxes out to the car he was overheard humming [The Impossible Dream…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KufFjcWOUQ) ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10634 "2017-08-25T20:51:30Z")
I’m not sure if this question is worthy of its own thread, but Roger Stone made some news the other day for suggesting that if there is an attempt made to remove Trump from office, that it will result in a “[spasm of violence](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/24/roger-stone-predicts-insurrection-trump-impeachment-242010)” and predicting an “insurrection”. So, what would actually happen if Trump refused to leave office peacefully if impeached? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10635 "2017-08-25T20:59:11Z")
If there is a spat of violence, the very first people the US Marshals are going to be visiting are the people like Stone who are inciting it. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10636 "2017-08-25T21:00:26Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > I’m not sure if this question is worthy of its own thread, but Roger Stone made some news the other day for suggesting that if there is an attempt made to remove Trump from office, that it will result in a “[spasm of violence](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/24/roger-stone-predicts-insurrection-trump-impeachment-242010)” and predicting an “insurrection”. > > So, what would actually happen if Trump refused to leave office peacefully if impeached? You mean if he refused to leave the mar a-lago golf course? Everyone in government could in theory just start ignoring him and stepping around him. His level of peace would have no impact, because he would simply be out of the loop. Pence would settle into the seat and immediately order the execution of all gay people, or something. That or ask for everyone to calm down and rest easy in the fact that the republicans were finally back in control of the white house, before asking around about filling all the positions that the Orange Idiot made vacant. One or the other. As for the populate, I believe that the nazis we’ve seen marching are all the nazis that are willing and energetic enough to march. There will be no widespread armed insurrection because they don’t have the manpower. They might do a little damage, and Pence won’t pardon them. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10637 "2017-08-25T21:03:41Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > I’m not sure if this question is worthy of its own thread, but Roger Stone made some news the other day for suggesting that if there is an attempt made to remove Trump from office, that it will result in a “[spasm of violence](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/24/roger-stone-predicts-insurrection-trump-impeachment-242010)” and predicting an “insurrection”. > > So, what would actually happen if Trump refused to leave office peacefully if impeached? He’s not the first to have made this prediction. I don’t know whether there would be a spasm of violence (whatever that means) but I suspect it would be an ugly spectacle of some sort, which is probably another reason the republicans are fearful of weakening him and would only impeach him if they really believed he’s threatening their party’s chances. But even if they pull the plug for that reason, it would probably ignite a civil war within the party and there’s no guarantee that the anti-Trumpists would win it even if the odds might seem in their favor now. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10638 "2017-08-25T21:11:41Z")
Trump is already waging a civil war in the GOP. Ryan’s and McConnell’s inability (or refusal) to acknowledge that fact is strikingly similar to their inability (or refusal) to acknowledge that Russia has been, and currently is, engaged in a cyber-warfare campaign against the United States, a campaign that had as one of its objectives the placing of the current GOP President in as President. The one that, right now, is working to destroy the GOP. Other than that, things are fine! ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10639 "2017-08-25T22:30:18Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > If there is a spat of violence, the very first people the US Marshals are going to be visiting are the people like Stone who are inciting it. Or the FBI, or both. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10640 "2017-08-25T22:40:17Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > … > As for the populate, I believe that the nazis we’ve seen marching are all the nazis that are willing and energetic enough to march. There will be no widespread armed insurrection because they don’t have the manpower. They might do a little damage, and Pence won’t pardon them. I’ll go further and say, most of them don’t have the balls, unless they are armed and have a huge numerical advantage. > **[Americans Against Trump](https://www.facebook.com/AmericansVsTrump/posts/1528497557188971)** > > Poor whiney little Nazi boy got exposed... > [@](#): > > “Nazi Identified After Attending Hate Rally In Charlottesville Says His ‘Life Is Over’ - > Once again, we find ourselves having to point out that if you claim you’re ‘not a Nazi’ then stop doing Nazi sh\*t because people don’t like Nazis, OK?…” And > [@](#): > > “Neo-Nazi Terrorist Christopher Cantwell balls his eyes out [https://youtu.be/lyeTj002DCo](https://youtu.be/lyeTj002DCo) > Whiney Little Nazi Bitch. NOW he’s afraid of arrest.” - Aunt Crabby And > **[The Most Beautifullest Thing in This World Is This Scared White Boy Stripping...](https://www.theroot.com/the-most-beautifullest-thing-in-this-world-is-this-scar-1797908920)** > > What do the hip, cool white supremacists wear when their white hoods and Ku Klux Klan robes are at the dry cleaners stained with Negro blood and it’s too hot at the rally to wear those thick, wool Hugo Boss-designed Nazi uniforms? Simple. They wear... > [@](#): > > This white boy, clad in his best “alt-right” rags, was tough as hell until he was chased off by a group of anti-fascists who weren’t having that shit. Aiden (not his real name) was probably pissing in his pants, yelling “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck” as he ran into the street and raised his hands. > > As soon as Timmy (not his real name) got in front of a police vehicle, he yanked off his shirt, revealing a pasty-white torso the color and consistency of biscuit dough. “I’m not really white power, man, I just came here for some fun … fuck,” he pleaded as his undefined bird chest thumped from fear. “I’m sorry.” > … “They scared the shit out of me.” He explained that he was “barely” a real white supremacist and that it was “kind of a fun idea … just being able to say ‘Hey man, white power.’” > > Tucker (which might actually be his real name—because in a 2014 study never conducted at Harvard University, researchers found that 42 percent of all certified fuckboys are named Chase or Tucker—but I can’t verify it) wandered around the counterprotest for a while with his shirt off. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/gnXBeQwmmrc/maxresdefault.jpg "Scared white supremacist takes off his uniform") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnXBeQwmmrc) ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10641 "2017-08-25T22:41:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > In Trump’s mind, I assume it went something like this; “In private, clapper wrote **me** a big beautiful letter about how great **I** am. he’s being mean to **me** now because he’s FAKE NEWS sucking up to the losers and haters who need an excuse for losing bigly to **MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.** ” So it was really just a form letter, and could have opened with “Dear Occupant” ---
**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:** [August 25, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10642 "2017-08-25T22:44:46Z")
Whoa! quite the awesome [quasi-retirement thingie](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2017/08/25/my-letter-of-not-quite-resignation-from-the-trump-white-house/) from Gary Cohn. A real cracka, ‘Pheel’, as the inestimable [Ray Hudson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHBoKB7YbxA) would say. Not sure if I’m reading the ending right: > [@](#): > > I am announcing that I am resigned. Not from the Trump administration, though. > > To it. Meaning - he’s just gonna normalize all the shit flung his way now?☹ ---
**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:** [August 25, 2017, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/10643 "2017-08-25T22:51:57Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > Whoa! quite the awesome [quasi-retirement thingie](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2017/08/25/my-letter-of-not-quite-resignation-from-the-trump-white-house/) from Gary Cohn. > A real cracka, ‘Pheel’, as the inestimable [Ray Hudson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHBoKB7YbxA) would say. > Not sure if I’m reading the ending right: > > Meaning - he’s just gonna normalize all the shit flung his way now?☹ NY Times says Cohn wants to be Securities and Exchange Commissioner, so he’s probably hanging on in hopes of getting that job. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=531) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=533)