# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/101 "2016-12-09T04:50:01Z")
Just wait until he really gets rolling. Should be a real shit fest. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/102 "2016-12-09T04:57:22Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Isn’t that a first??? He could be the first president without a honeymoon period. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/103 "2016-12-09T05:05:57Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Isn’t that a first??? Since Truman, [no president has had a negative approval rating upon taking office.](http://www.gallup.com/poll/116677/presidential-approval-ratings-gallup-historical-statistics-trends.aspx) (Scroll down for graphs.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/104 "2016-12-09T05:06:29Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > He could be the first president without a honeymoon period. He’s definitely will be the first president who has been on three honeymoons. ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/105 "2016-12-09T06:45:00Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > No, Nugent is going to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, shortly to be renamed to the “Department of Homeland Hammerdown and Hunting”. > > Stranger I just wish he’d put Tommy Chong in charge of the DEA. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/106 "2016-12-09T20:56:04Z")
[“Trump to name Goldman Sachs veteran, Gary Cohn, to head National Economic Council”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/09/trump-to-name-goldman-sachs-veteran-gary-cohn-to-head-national-economic-council/?utm_term=.007bd2eb8ac2) This is the same Hypocrite-Elect who was all over Hillary for supposedly having Wall Street in her back pocket. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/107 "2016-12-09T20:59:30Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Since Truman, [no president has had a negative approval rating upon taking office.](http://www.gallup.com/poll/116677/presidential-approval-ratings-gallup-historical-statistics-trends.aspx) (Scroll down for graphs.) He decided to burn through his “honeymoon period” before he even took office. His ego just cannot allow him to give it a rest. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/108 "2016-12-09T21:49:16Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > [“Trump to name Goldman Sachs veteran, Gary Cohn, to head National Economic Council”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/09/trump-to-name-goldman-sachs-veteran-gary-cohn-to-head-national-economic-council/?utm_term=.007bd2eb8ac2) > > This is the same Hypocrite-Elect who was all over Hillary for supposedly having Wall Street in her back pocket. :dubious: Nope, that never happened, and if you talk about it anymore, Trump is going to tweet about you personally, and then you’ll have to deal with the anonymous death threats from his lunatic supporters. That’s how things work now. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/109 "2016-12-09T21:51:42Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > He could be the first president without a honeymoon period. He’s just going to settle down to fucking us on a regular basis. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/110 "2016-12-09T21:51:53Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Nope, that never happened, and if you talk about it anymore, Trump is going to tweet about you personally, and then you’ll have to deal with the anonymous death threats from his lunatic supporters. > > That’s how things work now. Makes me wonder if Trump will have his minions scouring message boards like this one to find out who is saying tacky things about him. If that happens, I’m screwed! Mayberry will be too hot to hold me! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/111 "2016-12-09T23:23:42Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Nope, that never happened, and if you talk about it anymore, Trump is going to tweet about you personally, and then you’ll have to deal with the anonymous death threats from his lunatic supporters. > > That’s how things work now. A long long time ago, I got some threats. I gave the moron clear directions on how to get to my place, and what time I would be “available”. Decades later, I’m still waiting. ---
**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:** [December 10, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/112 "2016-12-10T00:04:00Z")
[Donald Trump’s mobster mentality](https://theweek.com/articles/666154/donald-trumps-mobster-mentality) > [@](#): > > Before running for president, Donald Trump was what we might consider a mid-to-high-level grifter. Despite his bogus claims about being the largest developer in New York, his media profile was much larger than his actual influence in the real estate world. As such, he was always looking for ways to scoop up extra cash and avoid liabilities in whatever quantities available — bilk struggling people out of $10,000 here and $20,000 there with phony real estate seminars, sell some steaks at Sharper Image, stiff the contractors who did work for him, get his “foundation” to pay off lawsuits against him, and so on. “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy,” he said. “I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy.” > > But now there’s no longer any need for small-time cons. Trump is truly the boss, and just like it is with the mob, everybody has to pay the boss. > > … > > t’s looking like conservatives in Washington will now be expected to hold all their major events at Trump’s hotel; the Heritage Foundation held a donor event there last week, and the RNC will be holding its Christmas party there — the same hotel where foreign dignitaries will be expected to stay when they’re in the American capital. “Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” one Asian diplomat told The Washington Post. You bet it is, and you bet he’ll notice. Meanwhile, the Secret Service may be renting out space in Trump Tower in New York, for millions of dollars a year. > > Of course, the details will be as opaque to the public as Trump can make them. That’s why he was the first nominee in four decades not to release his tax returns, and why he won’t ever release them. > > … > > And Trump needn’t worry that Congress is going to be breathing down his neck. “This is not what I’m concerned about in Congress,” said Speaker of the House and straight-arrow ethics advocate Paul Ryan when asked about Trump’s conflicts of interest. “I have every bit of confidence he’s going to get himself right with moving from being the business guy that he is to the president he’s going to become.” Other Republicans have a similar faith in Trump’s unimpeachable probity. “The American people knowingly voted for a businessman whose name is inextricably tied to his fortune,” said Newt Gingrich. “I’d say to the left wing, get over it.” > > … ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/113 "2016-12-10T01:12:26Z")
We dodge a bullet. [Giuliani takes himself out of running for Secretary Of State](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-giuliani-trump-secretary-of-state-20161209-story.html). 🙂 But Trump is now seriously considering Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson for the post. :eek: ---
**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:** [December 10, 2016, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/114 "2016-12-10T03:32:21Z")
\*The violin music swells, and we see a corridor of venerable oak trees shading a lane that leads to a big white house… is it Washington? No, it’s the Old South. Gentlemen in wide-brimmed hats astride mighty steeds, demure belles in hoop skirts and bonnets, happy darkies singing in the fields as they pick cotton… _ah, don’t you wish you could have lived back in those good ol’ days?_ Well, you just might get the chance! [How Trump and the GOP will try to turn the entire country into Dixie](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/12/09/how-trump-and-the-gop-will-try-to-turn-the-entire-country-into-dixie/) My bold. > [@](#): > > Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in Mississippi or Alabama? Well if the GOP has its way, you’ll get the chance to find out. > > That’s because Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, through the executive branch leadership now being assembled and the legislative priorities they have laid out, are preparing to take the economic, political, and social arrangements of the South and spread them across the country… Let’s look at it piece by piece: > > **The Southern economic model.** The first and most far-reaching component of this project is to take the Southern economic model national. The foundation of that model is the elimination of collective bargaining and the destruction of the labor unions that are able to negotiate higher wages and better benefits for workers. > … > **The Southern health care model. The Republicans’ first legislative priority is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and while we don’t yet know what form that repeal (or its replacement) will take, the people most vulnerable are the estimated 12 million who would lose the coverage they gained because of the law’s expansion of Medicaid. Nineteen states refused to accept that expansion, preferring to keep their poor citizens uninsured rather than allow them to get coverage paid for by the federal government. Those 19 included some conservative states in the Midwest like Kansas and Nebraska, but the largest group of states was in the South: 10 of the 11 states of the Confederacy (Louisiana being the sole exception) refused the Medicaid expansion.** > … > **The Southern education model.** Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is not an educator or education administrator; using her wealth as the wife of an heir to the Amway fortune, she has devoted her efforts to essentially trying to \*\*destroy public education in her home state of Michigan \*\*and in America more generally. > … > **The Southern civil rights model.** For his Attorney General, Trump picked Alabama’s Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, named for the president of the Confederacy and a Confederate general. …His most famous case as a prosecutor involved his unsuccessful prosecution of a former aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., \*\*whom Sessions went after for helping elderly African-Americans to vote absentee. \*\* > … > **The Southern abortion rights model.** As I’ve explained, not only are Republicans eager to overturn Roe v. Wade; even with that precedent intact they may try to pass federal laws that make the whole country like the South when it comes to abortion. > … > **The Southern environmental model.** Trump has named Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in a clear sign that he believes the first two words of the agency’s name are no longer operative. This too could represent a nationalization of what prevails in the South, where **officials in Republican-dominated states see environmental protection as essentially a nuisance for corporations** and the most pressing environmental question is how many wells we can drill. > … > The center of gravity in the GOP has been moving south for decades, and Republicans have long yearned to bring the South’s version of government and democracy to every corner of the country. Now they’ve finally got their chance. \*This description is 100% irony, in case any literal-minded person missed that. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/115 "2016-12-10T05:25:15Z")
It seems Boeing is pretty worried about how bad the Orange monster will screw up our relations with China. Trump thinks we’re in the drivers seat. Boeing thinks Trump is wrong. It all has to do with the 20% of Boeing’s output that China buys. \*…One-quarter of the nearly 500 Boeing 737 jets delivered in 2015 went to Chinese airlines, serving a fast-growing middle class that’s as large as the entire U.S. population. The market is worth a trillion dollars over the next 20 years. Everyday, Boeing’s factories are filled with colorful jets for Chinese airlines that Americans won’t recognize: Xiamen, 9 air, Donghai, Ruili, Hainan, Hebei, Shandong and Shenzhen…\* Imagine China getting pissed off and sends those orders to Airbus. How many jobs will that Trumponomics cost us? Yes, that threat is real, and those who think it isn’t should seek treatment for their nearsightedness. > **[Trump & Boeing: It's not about Air Force One, it's about China](https://money.cnn.com/2016/12/09/news/companies/trump-boeing-china/index.html)** > > The public spat between Donald Trump and Boeing, the maker of Air Force One, represents an unusual rift between two historically friendly American institutions—but the tension goes deeper than a tweet about a pair of presidential jets. Trump thinks his practice of going in over his head and then declaring bankruptcy when it doesn’t work, will work on the global level. Trump is clearly a moron. ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/116 "2016-12-10T14:02:30Z")
I can’t stop seeing Trump as this gigantic orange chicken that’s come home to roost on the practices, policies, and propaganda disseminated by the Republicans/far right etc for the past 20 years or more. If it wasn’t so damned depressing I’d be happy to say “you wanted it, you got it” ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/117 "2016-12-10T15:46:22Z")
"Reports by @CNN that I will be working on The Apprentice during my Presidency, even part time, are rediculous & untrue [sic] – FAKE NEWS!” He’s calling it “fake news” that he is going to work on The Apprentice in his spare time despite the fact that his senior advisor said, exactly that when asked about his role as producer on the show: "I mean, presidents have a right to do things in their spare time or their leisure time. I mean, nobody objects to that.” ---
**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:** [December 10, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/118 "2016-12-10T16:14:34Z")
Trump has great potential to be much worse than Nixon. Nixon may not have been likeable, but no one really knew what a rat bastard he was at first. We know what filth Trump is right from the starting gate. That’s why most voters did not vote for him. ---
**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:** [December 10, 2016, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/119 "2016-12-10T17:32:59Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > "Reports by @CNN that I will be working on The Apprentice during my Presidency, even part time, are rediculous & untrue [sic] – FAKE NEWS!” > > He’s calling it “fake news” that he is going to work on The Apprentice in his spare time despite the fact that his senior advisor said, exactly that when asked about his role as producer on the show: > > "I mean, presidents have a right to do things in their spare time or their leisure time. I mean, nobody objects to that.” I do wonder aloud if Trump did plan this to discredit CNN. I have to say also that IMHO CNN and many other outlets need to stop ASAP with the idea that Trump deserves to be treated fairly; it is the obligation of the media to stop with the false equivalence and report hard and loud what an incompetent we got as president, that is, unless corporate media does like to be seen as the incompetent one. ---
**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:** [December 10, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/120 "2016-12-10T17:50:41Z")
> [@slumtrimpet](#): > > I can’t stop seeing Trump as this gigantic orange chicken that’s come home to roost on the practices, policies, and propaganda disseminated by the Republicans/far right etc for the past 20 years or more. > If it wasn’t so damned depressing I’d be happy to say “you wanted it, you got it” Except they–or rather, the radical right wing that has taken over the Republican party–has actually gotten what they want. Look forward to more restrictive laws on abortion and availability of contraception, denial of climate change and an expansion of drilling and hydraulic fractioning for petroleum versus investment in developing renewable and synthetic energy sources, eviceraton of educational standards and the ability to teach non-science like creationism as “an alternative” to science, reconstituting the Supreme Court with heavily conservative justices who will take a “strict” (e.g. non-progressive) reading of Constitutional law, and removal of protections if not outright persecution of disfavored minorities. Trump has shown the radical right that they can have everything they want if they are just audacioiusly upfront about it and appeal to bigotry and fear. And this is a lesson that will persist long after Trump is playing his golden harp. Whatever Trump and his administration does in the next few years is nothing compared to the longer term impact on politics and governance in this country. The presidency has been allowed to become a powerful position by fiat, and we’ve largely depended on the fundamental decency and benevolence of a president not to be a raging asshole. Even with the worst of presidents in the modern era there was a need to be seen as being even-tempered and judicious in the exercise of power, but Trump has violated these preconceptions even before he has taken office. He is literally a man-baby with no sense of decorum or responsibility, and has set a new standard for what is acceptable in the behavior of a presidential candidate, and it is hard to see how we can ever fully unlearn that ‘lesson’ even after Trump goes away as a figure. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=7)