# 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:** 667
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13325 "2017-11-08T03:10:29Z")
Sounds like they drugged Trump for his speech in Korea tonight. The only way I could have been more bored listening to his droning recitation of Korean history is if I lived in Korea and had known all that since I was six years old. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13326 "2017-11-08T03:15:34Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Sounds like they drugged Trump for his speech in Korea tonight. The only way I could have been more bored listening to his droning recitation of Korean history is if I lived in Korea and had known all that since I was six years old. If I was one of Trump’s day-care handlers, I would attach powerful electrodes to his nuts. “ZZZZZZP” “Did you feel that? I’m sure you did. Get off the floor. Now here is your speech you will give in Korea. If you deviate from this speech, if you say ONE SINGLE THING that is not written down here, I will zap your nuts so hard,you will be unable to walk for a week. GOT IT, LITTLE MAN?” ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13327 "2017-11-08T03:18:19Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Michael Lewis (“The Blind Side”, “The Big Short”) has written a series of articles for Vanity Fair on how the Trump Administration managed the transition, and staffed, the Executive Branch – focusing primarily on Agriculture and Energy. > > He’s making the interview rounds; [here’s a transcript of his appearance on Fresh Air](https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=562246599). It’ll make you weep. Thanks for that super interesting link. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13328 "2017-11-08T03:30:37Z")
Ed Gillespie, who Trump has been campaigning for, has lost the governor’s race in Virginia. Let’s see how long until Loser Donald deletes all his tweets praising him. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13329 "2017-11-08T03:47:58Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Michael Lewis (“The Blind Side”, “The Big Short”) has written a series of articles for Vanity Fair on how the Trump Administration managed the transition, and staffed, the Executive Branch – focusing primarily on Agriculture and Energy. > > He’s making the interview rounds; [here’s a transcript of his appearance on Fresh Air](https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=562246599). It’ll make you weep. I listened to that and OMG, it’s so much worse than watching 45 ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13330 "2017-11-08T04:52:45Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Ed Gillespie, who Trump has been campaigning for, has lost the governor’s race in Virginia. > > Let’s see how long until Loser Donald deletes all his tweets praising him. ["Not my fault. NOT MY FAULT!](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/07/trump-blames-gillespie-for-loss-in-va-race-did-not-embrace-me.html) Gillespie did not lick my nut-sack with sufficient enthusiasm! Sad!" ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13331 "2017-11-08T05:02:18Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > ["Not my fault. NOT MY FAULT!](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/07/trump-blames-gillespie-for-loss-in-va-race-did-not-embrace-me.html) Gillespie did not lick my nut-sack with sufficient enthusiasm! Sad!" Actually, Gillespie did _try_ to embrace Trump. It’s much like embracing [a hagfish.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagfish) Hagfish are long and vermiform, and\*\* can exude copious quantities of a milky and fibrous slime or mucus\*\* from some 100 glands or invaginations running along their flanks.[5] The species Myxine glutinosa was named for this slime. When captured and held, e.g., by the tail, they secrete the microfibrous slime, which expands into up to 20 litres (5¼ US gallons) of sticky, gelatinous material when combined with water ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13332 "2017-11-08T14:16:07Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Actually, Gillespie did _try_ to embrace Trump. It’s much like embracing [a hagfish.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagfish) > > Hagfish are long and vermiform, and\*\* can exude copious quantities of a milky and fibrous slime or mucus\*\* from some 100 glands or invaginations running along their flanks.[5] The species Myxine glutinosa was named for this slime. When captured and held, e.g., by the tail, they secrete the microfibrous slime, which expands into up to 20 litres (5¼ US gallons) of sticky, gelatinous material when combined with water Hmmm… :dubious: I believe you have found the perfect analogy in the natural world to President Thump. Well done. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13333 "2017-11-08T15:05:21Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > No-one commenting about the (paraphrasing) “Your economy’s good, but not as good as ours and we’ll keep it that way” comment? [Link](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/06/trump-says-japans-economy-is-not-as-good-as-ours-and-should-stay-that-way.html) > > What a fucking embarrassment trump is (I know this is not news to anyone, just feels good to type it) I’m sure Abe has too much tact to do this, but it would have been nice if he had a state dinner and served himself two scoops of ice cream and only half a scoop to Donald. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13334 "2017-11-08T15:11:50Z")
And then puked in his lap. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13335 "2017-11-08T15:37:57Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Michael Lewis (“The Blind Side”, “The Big Short”) has written a series of articles for Vanity Fair on how the Trump Administration managed the transition, and staffed, the Executive Branch – focusing primarily on Agriculture and Energy. > > He’s making the interview rounds; [here’s a transcript of his appearance on Fresh Air](https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=562246599). It’ll make you weep. [Here’s one of the _Vanity Fair_ articles](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/usda-food-stamps-school-lunch-trump-administration), so you can get the long-form version. Insanity. This is a long quote, but it’s only a fraction of the article: > [@](#): > > No one showed up that first day after the election, or the next. This was strange: the day after he was elected, Obama had sent his people into the U.S.D.A., as had Bush. At the end of the second day the folks at the Department of Agriculture called the White House to ask what was going on. “The White House said they’d be here Monday,” recalled one. On Monday morning they worked themselves up all over again into a welcoming spirit. Again, no one showed. Not that entire week. On November 22, [former PepsiCo lobbyist Joel] Leftwich made a cameo appearance for about an hour. “We had thought, Rural America is who got Trump elected, so he’ll have to make us a priority,” said the transition planner, “but then nothing happened.” (The U.S.D.A. did not respond to questions from Vanity Fair.) > > More than a month after the election, the Trump transition team finally appeared. But it wasn’t a team: it was just one guy, named Brian Klippenstein. He came from his job running an organization called Protect the Harvest. Protect the Harvest was founded by a Trump supporter, an Indiana oilman and rancher named Forrest Lucas. Its stated purpose was “to protect your right to hunt, fish, farm, eat meat, and own animals.” In practice it mainly demonized organizations, like the Humane Society, that sought to prevent people who owned animals from doing terrible things to them. They worried, apparently, that if people were forced to be kind to animals they might one day cease to eat them. “This is a weird group,” says Rachael Bale, who writes often about animal welfare for National Geographic. > > One of the U.S.D.A.’s many duties was to police conflicts between people and animals. It brought legal action against people who abused animals, and so maybe it wasn’t the ideal place to insert a man who was preternaturally unconcerned with their welfare. The department maintained its composure—no nasty leaks to the press, no resignations in protest—even as Klippenstein focused, bizarrely, on a single issue. Not animal abuse but climate change. “He came in and wanted to know all about the office on climate change,” says a former U.S.D.A. employee. “That’s what he wanted to focus on. He wanted the names of the people doing the work.” The career staffer running the transition politely declined to give Klippenstein the names, but he said he bore no ill will toward him for asking. Klip—as he became known affectionately—had reassured everyone by saying, to anyone who would listen, that just as soon as this transition was over he was going straight back to his small livestock farm in Missouri. […] > > It was obvious to everyone inside the U.S.D.A. that Klip was in an impossible position; no one person could get his mind around all the things the department did. Just a couple of weeks before the inauguration, Klip was joined by three other Trump people. The four-person team made a show of sitting down with some of the roughly 100,000-person U.S.D.A. staff to hear what they had to say. These briefings lived up to their name: the entire introduction to the U.S.D.A.’s vast scientific-research unit lasted an hour. “At most of the federal agencies, there were no real briefings,” says a former senior White House official who watched the process closely. “They were basically for show. The Trump transition sent in these teams in the end just to say they were doing it.” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13336 "2017-11-08T16:11:18Z")
I think that illustrates that Trump really did not expect to win and never did. He did no preparation because he never thought he would have to, and in fact his campaign was run on the basis of cutting government down anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13337 "2017-11-08T16:20:58Z")
This is truly the The Producers administration. It even has stupid nazis! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13338 "2017-11-08T17:14:10Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > This is truly the The Producers administration. It even has stupid nazis! I don’t think trump could paint an apartment. I don’t think he could paint a 2x4. Not even one coat! ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13339 "2017-11-08T17:24:34Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > I think that illustrates that Trump really did not expect to win and never did. He did no preparation because he never thought he would have to, and in fact his campaign was run on the basis of cutting government down anyway. I think it also illustrates how much preparation to govern goes into the final months of the campaign. And I can only imagine the immense feeling of…grief? Definitely disappointment, probably depression…after a loss and all that preparation is for naught. I know the people who run for president are cut from a different cloth than most of us, some might even argue they have sociopath tendencies, but losing a presidential election (in this day and age) has to be one of the most overwhelming experiences ever. Except in Trump’s case, the overwhelming experience was actually winning. The work most people do in preparation of a win, he and his team were probably putting in for a preparation of a loss-- legal teams, lawsuits, Trump Media Outlet, etc. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13340 "2017-11-08T17:38:30Z")
Yeah, but he likes toys. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13341 "2017-11-08T18:04:30Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I think it also illustrates how much preparation to govern goes into the final months of the campaign. And I can only imagine the immense feeling of…grief? Definitely disappointment, probably depression…after a loss and all that preparation is for naught. > > I know the people who run for president are cut from a different cloth than most of us, some might even argue they have sociopath tendencies, but losing a presidential election (in this day and age) has to be one of the most overwhelming experiences ever. > > Except in Trump’s case, the overwhelming experience was actually winning. The work most people do in preparation of a win, he and his team were probably putting in for a preparation of a loss-- legal teams, lawsuits, Trump Media Outlet, etc. It’s like expecting someone like Leslie Knope to win the office, but getting Jeremy Jamm instead. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13342 "2017-11-08T19:18:14Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Except in Trump’s case, the overwhelming experience was actually winning. The work most people do in preparation of a win, he and his team were probably putting in for a preparation of a loss-- legal teams, lawsuits, Trump Media Outlet, etc. I think you’re right. Trump was planning to spend the next few years holding rallies, chanting “lock her up!”, selling overpriced MAGA shit made in China, and generally trying to make life a living hell for Hillary. He was setting himself up to be the worlds biggest attention whore troll, who would make headlines with outrageous accusations against the government, leading a bunch of rubes who would fill his pockets. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13343 "2017-11-08T19:48:52Z")
Ok, AF1 will be landing in Danang for President Bialystok’s meeting with his Puppetmaster. This is just way too much cog-dis for me. ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/13344 "2017-11-08T20:00:13Z")
I’m assuming the American press will be banned. I would love some footage of Trump heading into a room with Putin and the door being shut. Edit; I assumed you meant Trump. I see that I could be mistaken. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=666) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=668)