# 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:** 624
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12464 "2017-10-18T12:30:33Z")
Re the Trump die-hards: do they even hear some of the worst things Trump says/does? Seriously, does FOX news report it? Anyone here keep track of Fox news or other outlets favored by the Trumpnoks? I read something a while back that in a poll, many FOX watchers didn’t know who Mueller is because FOX isn’t reporting on that investigation (sorry, no cite on that one). ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12465 "2017-10-18T13:10:51Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > 🙂 Thanks. I don’t have the strength, though. I’d have to hang myself after about an hour of trying to think like Trump. :eek: You’d make it through a whole hour? I’d be flaming out after about five minutes. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12466 "2017-10-18T13:41:09Z")
> [@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**? Yes. All of them. ---
**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, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12467 "2017-10-18T13:44:08Z")
> [@betonbill](#): > > Does anybody in the White House have half a brain? > [@enipla](#): > > Yes. All of them. They pass it around as needed. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12468 "2017-10-18T14:01:49Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > They pass it around as needed. [Give Me The Brain](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176/give-me-brain)… I have to do spin control… ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12469 "2017-10-18T15:08:32Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > 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. Yes, but that Gold Star Family was brown, had immigrated, and were the wrong religion. I hope matters would be different for a pregnant widow. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12470 "2017-10-18T15:08:53Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > 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) I dunno…I smell a set-up. The congresswoman just happened to be there, listening on the speakerphone? Maybe then she just lifted the most embarrassing (to Trump) quote out of context and released it to the media? Kudos to her if that’s the case, but this sounds a bit fishy. Of course, Trump’s “proof” would be to reveal that he secretly records condolence calls to grieving widows. ---
**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, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12471 "2017-10-18T15:24:24Z")
From that same CNN report: > [@](#): > > “I have no reason to lie (to) the President of the United States with a dead soldier in my community. I have no time, I have no motive,” she told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day,” noting that she was the elementary school principal of Johnson’s father and mentored the sergeant. So what \*would \*be her motive? She can’t defame Trump any more than he has himself, can she? ---
**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, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12472 "2017-10-18T15:35:02Z")
[Mrs. Johnson’s mother was there and confirms it.](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-congresswoman-call-army-widow_us_59e73b81e4b00905bdadb6dc?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009) Now, time for “I have proof” to kick in. ---
**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, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12473 "2017-10-18T15:47:25Z")
So Trump called a soldier’s grieving widow and made her feel worse. It. Does. Not. Matter. He could have grabbed her by the genitals, and it Would Not Matter. About one third of Americans and just over one half of Congress are with Trump till the bitter end. He’s not quitting, he’s not getting impeached, he’s not getting removed under the 25th Amendment. We are fucked. All of us are fucked. Meanwhile, Trump has shown, yet again, that [he’s clueless on healthcare](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/17/trumps-cynically-bad-justification-for-his-controversial-obamacare-move/?utm_term=.bd54aa754d61). > [@Washington Post](#): > > Early Tuesday, Trump decided upon a justification for his controversial decision to cancel Obamacare payments to insurers that subsidized policies for low-income Americans: The insurance companies are getting rich off this stuff, he claimed. > > His argument was dubious at best; insurance companies are making lots of money, but not on Obamacare plans. And not only that, but Trump then suggested at a news conference that he actually supported a newly struck deal that would restore the payments that he said were lining insurance-company pockets. > > And then he did a 180. He told the Heritage Foundation later Tuesday that “Congress must find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies.” Then he tweeted much the same Wednesday morning. What the fuck? Pick a position! ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12474 "2017-10-18T15:49:07Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > [Give Me The Brain](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176/give-me-brain)… I have to do spin control… [Our real Ruling Triumvirate…](http://www.theviewscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/thegamestersoftriskelion1-300x227.jpg) ---
**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, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12475 "2017-10-18T15:51:12Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > [Our real Ruling Triumvirate…](http://www.theviewscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/thegamestersoftriskelion1-300x227.jpg) Reached for comment, the new White House [spokesperson](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6o7UDpn1mKI/hqdefault.jpg)only replied, “Brain and brain! What is 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, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12476 "2017-10-18T15:52:10Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I dunno…I smell a set-up. The congresswoman just happened to be there, listening on the speakerphone? Maybe then she just lifted the most embarrassing (to Trump) quote out of context and released it to the media? > > Kudos to her if that’s the case, but this sounds a bit fishy. Of course, Trump’s “proof” would be to reveal that he secretly records condolence calls to grieving widows. You could try a little research. [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/17/politics/frederica-wilson-widow-fallen-soldier/index.html) > [@](#): > > Johnson’s body was returned home to the Miami area late Tuesday afternoon, with the plane receiving a water cannon salute as it arrived near the gate. > **The call from the President to Johnson’s widow came shortly before Johnson’s casket arrival** , Wilson said on “CNN Tonight” Tuesday night. > > Cowanda Jones-Johnson, a family member who raised Johnson, told CNN Wednesday that Wilson’s account of the call between Trump and Johnson’s widow, Myeshia, was “very accurate.” She said she was in the car when the call happened. > Wilson described herself as “livid” **when she heard the call on speakerphone, but when she tried to get the phone to talk to Trump herself, a master sergeant who was present prevented her from doing so.** Per military protocol, the calls from the commander in chief are solely presidential condolence conversations. That explains both the Congresswoman’s and the master sergeant’s presence. ---
**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, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12477 "2017-10-18T16:07:59Z")
Last night, Trump [claimed](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-nine-months-any-president-history)that “they say” he’s done more in nine months than any other president in history. This is so ridiculous it hardly merits a response. Almost his entire agenda, such as it is, is stalled. Josh Marshall has a pretty good [piece](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/hes-poison-part-ii) on Trump over at TPM. Nothing in it is particularly new, but the writing is nice. > [@Josh Marshall](#): > > President Trump is poison. Everything around him gets damaged and degraded. It’s not any one thing. It’s everything. > > \ > > You’re talking about someone with a profound selfishness, a jarring inability to have empathy and a kind of ravenous emotional predation. Someone who is a profound narcissist is inherently erratic and destructive to those around him since they are acting according to their own impulses, angers and appetites with a relative indifference or even a sort of blindness to those around him. They don’t exist. Lots of wreckage is inevitable. That’s what it’s like living, trapped, in a house with an abuser. This is what it’s like living in a country with a President who’s a predator. > > He poisons everything. No one gets out undamaged. Some are damaged profoundly. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12478 "2017-10-18T16:08:10Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > You could try a little research. > [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/17/politics/frederica-wilson-widow-fallen-soldier/index.html) > > That explains both the Congresswoman’s and the master sergeant’s presence. Ok, I’m convinced. Carry on. ---
**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, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12479 "2017-10-18T16:09:54Z")
When you feel the need to defend your _ **presidential condolence conversations** _ by calling a grieving widow and Congresswoman liars, you’ve lost control of everything. You are a soulless and rotten piece of shit. Not that we didn’t already know this about him, but for fuck’s sake, I’m getting sick of yelling “For fuck’s sake…” every single day. I’m not even sure our Republic deserves to survive at this point. We have failed you, George Washington. We have failed you. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12480 "2017-10-18T16:16:06Z")
I was thinking that the congresswoman from Florida was laying a trap for Trump, but of course that’s entirely unnecessary. He happily blunders into every pit, hoists himself on his and everybody else’s petard – there’s no need to set traps. But as Bayard said … it doesn’t matter. It’s just another scrap of evidence thrown on top of the mountain. At this point, the House of Representatives Articles of Impeachment could be: Article I. The President is completely unfit for office, and we’re sick of this bullshit. End. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12481 "2017-10-18T16:16:15Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > [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. Unfortunately, the Dullard on Deck is creating dreck like this to generate support for scuppering NAFTA. What he does not grasp is that killing NAFTA will hurt all parties, including the USA. [Here’s an earlier Washington Post article that walks you through it.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-trump-is-about-to-make-the-worst-deal-ever-even-worse/2017/10/15/ef4d24f2-af59-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.9b92f9cb7620) (Folks using Google Chrome can right left click and select “open in incognito window” if they have concerns arising out of being tracked) > [@](#): > > If NAFTA crumbles, trade among Mexico, Canada and the United States would fall under World Trade Organization rules with modest average tariff rates and an established, if unwieldy, process for resolving disputes. > > But the tariff rates, although relatively low, would be higher on U.S. exports than on U.S. imports. Many trade experts say that would hurt U.S. exporters of everything from corn to auto parts and that the United States could end up with fewer jobs while paying higher prices for goods than it does. > > Meanwhile, Canada and Mexico would be able to fall back on free-trade agreements they have forged with Europe recently, providing zero tariffs. ---
**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, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12482 "2017-10-18T16:17:46Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > When you feel the need to defend your _ **presidential condolence conversations** _ by calling a grieving widow and Congresswoman liars, you’ve lost control of everything. You are a soulless and rotten piece of shit. Not that we didn’t already know this about him, but for fuck’s sake, I’m getting sick of yelling “For fuck’s sake…” every single day. I’m not even sure our Republic deserves to survive at this point. We have failed you, George Washington. We have failed you. George Washington? Have you seen this guy? Ever looked at his teeth? Terrible teeth! Sad. They say I have the best teeth. -[Donald Trump](https://media.giphy.com/media/lF5li31f8WdKo/giphy.gif) ---
**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:** [October 18, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12483 "2017-10-18T16:18:13Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Last night, Trump [claimed](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-nine-months-any-president-history)that “they say” he’s done more in nine months than any other president in history. Well, yeah, he has. He’s got the lock on the most unpresidential president in history. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=623) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=625)