# 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:** 623
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12444 "2017-10-18T03:06:09Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > I seriously think you could make money writing Trump statements… The tone is just spot-on. 🙂 Thanks. I don’t have the strength, though. I’d have to hang myself after about an hour of trying to think like Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambrosio_Spinola)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12445 "2017-10-18T03:09:19Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I feel like the rest of us should do a follow-up call to the families and apologize for Trump’s dickishness. I feel horrible that these families have to deal with this buffoon at this difficult time. I mean, even if they voted for him, they just don’t deserve the clueless and offensive word salad he’s likely dishing out. No kidding, because now he’ll probably attack the pregnant widow on Twitter for making him look bad. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12446 "2017-10-18T04:09:44Z")
> [@](#): > > White House officials working on trade policy were alarmed last month when a top adviser to President Trump circulated a two-page document that alleged a weakened manufacturing sector leads to an increase in abortion, spousal abuse, divorce and infertility, two people familiar with the matter said. > > The documents, which were obtained by The Washington Post, were prepared and distributed by Peter Navarro, director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. **They were presented without any data or information to back up the assertions** , and reveal some of the materials the Trump administration reviewed as it was crafting its trade policy. [Internal White House documents allege manufacturing decline increases abortions, infertility, and spousal abuse - The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/10/17/internal-white-house-documents-allege-manufacturing-decline-increases-abortions-infertility-and-spousal-abuse/?utm_term=.a1c7218ccff4) (my bold). I don’t think it’s crazy to suggest that a decline in economic opportunity has at least an indirect effect on some of those problems. I could see that loss of job security may lead to marital stress, which might fuel an increase in domestic violence and divorce. But, you gotta bring the data if you’re making claims like that. The Washington Post article may be paywalled, but if you can get to it, get a load of the graphics that accompany these claims. They wouldn’t pass muster in a high school term paper. They remind me of the ridiculous charts in Sebastian Gorka’s thesis. The people running the country are making policy decisions based on this level of rigor and scholarship? Jesus. Of course I’m biased, as a liberal and Obama supporter. But if someone handed Obama a two page paper claiming, among other things, that a decline in the manufacturing sector leads to a decline in fertility, I’m fairly sure Obama would have expected to see more evidence than a few ovals drawn with MS Paint. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12447 "2017-10-18T04:16:07Z")
> [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](#): > > No kidding, because now he’ll probably attack the pregnant widow on Twitter for making him look bad. I’m torn. I don’t want the lady to suffer more but I want Trumplethinskin to do something that horrific. Something that not even his most crazed supporters can excuse or handwave. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12448 "2017-10-18T04:28:03Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Something that not even his most crazed supporters can excuse or handwave. I’m not sure such a thing exists. He could shit on the American flag while sucking Putin’s cock, and the Trumpsters would wave it off and claim Hillary Clinton has done worse. And Rex Tillerson would make the rounds of Sunday political news shows once again, excusing Trump’s flag-shitting Putin-fellating behavior as being ‘unconventional’ in order to shake up the system. #MAGA ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12449 "2017-10-18T04:32:37Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > I’m torn. I don’t want the lady to suffer more but I want Trumplethinskin to do something that horrific. Something that not even his most crazed supporters can excuse or handwave. His deplorables supported smearing a Gold Star family, making fun of the disabled, and grabbing women by the pussy. I’m not sure they have a red line. ---
**Author:** ![betonbill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@betonbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betonbill)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12450 "2017-10-18T04:43:10Z")
He could take their healthcare away from them, especially the ones that need that Medicaid expansion help. About the call to the soldier’s wife: How hard would it have been for somebody to come up with a statement for him to read over the phone to the relatives? Does anybody in the White House have half a brain? ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12451 "2017-10-18T04:49:59Z")
> [@betonbill](#): > > He could take their healthcare away from them, especially the ones that need that Medicaid expansion help. > > About the call to the soldier’s wife: How hard would it have been for somebody to come up with a statement for him to read over the phone to the relatives? Does anybody in the White House have half a brain? Have you heard him read? They would _know_ he’s reading a script. Of course, that better than the horror when he freewheels it. And no, no they don’t. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12452 "2017-10-18T04:51:19Z")
> [@betonbill](#): > > Does anybody in the White House have half a brain? Maybe between all of them together. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12453 "2017-10-18T04:54:30Z")
> [@betonbill](#): > > About the call to the soldier’s wife: How hard would it have been for somebody to come up with a statement for him to read over the phone to the relatives? Does anybody in the White House have half a brain? In any other White House, you could argue that the president would be perfectly capable of making a sensitive and thoughtful phone call to the grieving family of a dead soldier without a canned statement. Whatever I thought of his politics, I would have been confident that even George W. Bush could do something like that without too much trouble. We live in interesting times. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12454 "2017-10-18T05:03:58Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > He could shit on the American flag while sucking Putin’s cock, and the Trumpsters would wave it off and claim Hillary Clinton has done worse. I’m pretty sure this has actually happened. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12455 "2017-10-18T05:15:20Z")
[_The N.Y. Times_ reviews Trump’s State Dept.](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/magazine/rex-tillerson-and-the-unraveling-of-the-state-department.html) It makes for sad reading. As one example, > [@](#): > > Nikki Haley … set up a conference call with two senior State Department officials: Kristie Kenney, the State Department counselor, and Patrick Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management. Haley wanted to ask them … basic matters like what her salary and benefits would be and where her family would live in New York City. Kenney and Kennedy told her about the federal employee health insurance plan and offered to send her floor plans of the U.N. ambassador’s apartment. When word of the call got back to Trump’s transition team, _ **the two department officials were reprimanded by Glazer and told never to speak with Haley again.** _… > Two days later, Kennedy was told to retire and given three days to clean out his office. Kennedy had spent 44 years in the Foreign Service and was not particularly political, focusing instead on management and operations; he’d been appointed to his under-secretary position by President George W. Bush… Tillerson aides later joked that Kennedy’s defenestration was like something out of the Soviet Union, dragging a political foe out into the street and shooting him in the head so as to send a message to others. Kennedy’s major crime? His 44-year career at the State Dept. intersected with Clinton’s time as Secretary. > [@mhendo](#): > > We live in interesting times. Curiosity and amusement no longer head the list of my emotions about Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12456 "2017-10-18T05:18:09Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > In any other White House, you could argue that the president would be perfectly capable of making a sensitive and thoughtful phone call to the grieving family of a dead soldier without a canned statement. Whatever I thought of his politics, I would have been confident that even George W. Bush could do something like that without too much trouble. Hell, there’s the sister of a fallen soldier who [tweeted today about her encounter with Pres. Bush](https://twitter.com/DeliliaOMalley/status/920039016124252160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shropshirestar.com%2Fnews%2Fviral-news%2F2017%2F10%2F17%2Fthe-sister-of-a-soldier-killed-in-the-iraq-war-has-some-very-strong-words-for-donald-trump%2F): > [@](#): > > When my brother was killed, Pres Bush listened while I screamed at him & then held me as I sobbed The woman then went on to call Trump a “fat fucking liar” as it relates to his claim that former presidents were not reaching out to the families of dead soldiers. There’s a special place in hades for the vile human being who makes me wish with all of my bubbling guts that George W. Bush was again our president. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12457 "2017-10-18T05:45:31Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’m pretty sure this has actually happened. You are probably misremembering the time last October when Putin used the US flag as a condom to sodomize the shitgibbon with on stage at a campaign rally. Ivanka was … what the hell was she … hold on, lemme see if I can find that story. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12458 "2017-10-18T06:57:02Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > I’m torn. I don’t want the lady to suffer more but I want Trumplethinskin to do something that horrific. Something that not even his most crazed supporters can excuse or handwave. In that case you’re looking for him to do something decent. That’s where his supporters draw the line. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12459 "2017-10-18T11:09:07Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I feel like the rest of us should do a follow-up call to the families and apologize for Trump’s dickishness. I feel horrible that these families have to deal with this buffoon at this difficult time. I mean, even if they voted for him, they just don’t deserve the clueless and offensive word salad he’s likely dishing out. Best way to apologize is to vote next year. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12460 "2017-10-18T11:38:51Z")
One would think that his inept handling of the Niger war dead would give pause to his die-hard base. But it will not in the slightest. There is a segment of the population who could not possibly care less what he says or does. The 5th Avenue killing line was spot on- he could indeed commit murder and his base would eat it up with gusto. The problem is not with him, it’s with his base. Until they feel any sense of decency or shame, he won’t . ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12461 "2017-10-18T11:55:23Z")
If only \*Trump \*knew what he signed up for. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12462 "2017-10-18T12:17:13Z")
You guessed it. “He knew what he signed up for” was [“Fake news!”](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/17/politics/frederica-wilson-widow-fallen-soldier/index.html) > [@](#): > > “Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!” he tweeted. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12463 "2017-10-18T12:18:15Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > The problem is not with him, it’s with his base. Until they feel any sense of decency or shame, he won’t . If and when they do, he won’t. He’ll boast that his dwindling crowds are just as big as they always were— bigger than ever, in fact— and that claims of discontent and flagging popularity are fake news from an unfair leftist media trying to convince the public that Trump isn’t making America great again, which they aren’t buying, exclamation point. If a miracle happens and Trump does begin shedding his die-hards, and if he indulges in an unprecedented moment of self-awareness, the takeaway will be not be a need for decency of shame, but that he needs to do a better job finding scapegoats and red herrings, picking petty and pointless feuds, tweeting juvenile nicknames, and making outlandish boasts and extemporaneous promises that he has no capability of fulfilling— all the qualities that endeared his base to him in the first place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=622) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=624)