# 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:** 754
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15065 "2018-01-08T00:13:18Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > Yeah, there isn’t much in Fire and Fury that wasn’t reported at the time, it’s an interesting fleshing out of the “behind the scenes” speculation that surrounded the constant controversies. > > But it’s actually made me think we shouldn’t impeach a Trump yet. Because I’m thinking if the Dems get a House and Senate majority in 2018 ( later this year! ), he can probably be convinced to sign a UHC bill as well as a lot of other left-leaning legislation. Because he has no ideology, all he wants are WINS! And Jarvanka is a closet liberal anyway and Kushner’s brother owns an ObamaCare dependent health insurance company. > Especially if CNN, etc turn around the tone of their Trump coverage. It’s probably wishful thinking but maybe he could become OUR useful idiot. What your analysis forgets is that the Democrats are supporting an investigation that threatens to put his family enterprise out of business and his family in jail. And it threatens to derail the donor class agenda. Even if this year’s elections are free of Putin’s meddling, the Democrats won’t be able to retake congress in numbers sufficient to force Trump from power. I hate to tell you but this is not 1974 and we’d better start understanding that fact. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try to impeach him – they should. But Trump has made outrage normal - any single one of the hundreds of not thousands of insults to democratic norms we’ve been subjected to over the past year would have been a scandal for any other president - certainly would have been for a would-be female president, certainly would have been for Trump’s black predecessor. But Trump has baptized us in outrage - over and over again. It’s not just the GOP that have normalized him; millions of people made a decision to normalize him on November 8, 2016, and whether they realized it or not, they made a decision to normalize him and everything he does. Of course I don’t think that’s the worst of it - Putin is at war with us. Not with the Democratic party, not with the Republican party. Not with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or Donald Trump. He’s at war with American power. He wants and needs an America at war with itself. I think we can expect another November surprise, and it could be even more spectacular than last year’s. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15066 "2018-01-08T00:32:20Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Krugman is entirely correct. The Republican party has become a cancer spread throughout our system of government. It must be rooted out and destroyed. They are all now conspiring as a legislative body to obstruct Mueller’s investigation and to leave the door wide open for foreign interference in our elections for as long as it suits those who share common interests to work toward an American plutocracy. They have abandoned all pretense of participation in a democratic republic governed by the rule of law. > > To use Trump for Democrats’ own purposes is only to emulate the Republicans’ worst behaviors. In addition to the horror show that remains his cabinet (Really? Leave Pompeo in charge of the CIA? Mnuchin in charge of Treasury? Tillerson as SoS?), which would continue to eat away at our institutional norms and finish the ruination of our global relationships, it would normalize Trumpism for decades to come. It would change who we are as Americans at the most fundamental level. > > The most important thing Democrats can do when they retake the House and Senate is to safeguard Mueller, allow him to complete his investigation, impeach Trump and then put as many of the remaining Trump bunch in jail as we can. What they are doing is criminal. If Dems fail to take the Senate in 2018, then they must at least stymie every single thing Trump and his bandits try to accomplish until the Senate can be retaken. > > Most here now understand what happened in 2016. More frightening than the Russian interference and the hungry willingness of the Trump crowd to exploit it for their own personal enrichment is the eagerness with which the Republicans have embraced the intrusion and abandoned the entire country to do so. We must fight in every way possible to stop it. And then to ensure it never, ever happens again. Well said. +1 ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15067 "2018-01-08T00:52:16Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > These days, Trump’s official schedule starts at 11:00, and he’s attending far fewer meetings than he did in the early days of his presidency. He fills the remaining time, naturally, with television. > … Don’t forget golf. Between watching TV, tweeting, and golfing, when does he have any time to do Presidentin’? ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15068 "2018-01-08T02:40:59Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > What if we don’t want an idiot no matter what his political leanings are? How about having a President with some dignity again? Yeah, you guys are ultimately right. It’s just that I gel so annoyed with the Republican shenanigans that I want to turn it all around and give it right back to them…HARD. But then I remember that it’ll be the same kind of disaster for the Dems. Best to stick to the high road, as much as I sometimes want to go low just to give them a taste of their own medicine. Buts it’s totally not the right thing to do. I just like my revenge fantasies. But a little flattery goes a long way with Trump, as does the idea of winning. So maybe while everyone is doing everything they can to get rid of him ( which I hope happens as soon as possible) someone can compliment his hair then slip him a universal health care bill to sign. Because I think he can be swayed on that issue. ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15069 "2018-01-08T02:56:55Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Don’t forget golf. Between watching TV, tweeting, and golfing, when does he have any time to do Presidentin’? Why on earth would you want him to do any Presidentin’? ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15070 "2018-01-08T02:57:59Z")
Stephen Miller was on Jake Tapper’s show on CNN today and went ranting about how Trump is a genius and CNN is fake news, so Tapper cut him off and said it was a waste of the viewers’ time. And Miller refused to leave the set till he was escorted off by security. > **[Stephen Miller had to be escorted off CNN's set after his interview with Jake...](https://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-miller-escorted-off-cnn-2018-1)** > > Miller ignored multiple requests to leave, prompting CNN to call security. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15071 "2018-01-08T03:41:19Z")
> [@slumtrimpet](#): > > Why on earth would you want him to do any Presidentin’? I don’t. Just sayin’. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15072 "2018-01-08T03:57:15Z")
It is impossible that Trump will switch teams. The opposition party wants to impeach him and could ruin him. From his point of view, there’s only one way out: replace the rule of law with the rule of men. And from the Republican / donor class point of view, there’s only one way to maintain power: rig democracy so that some votes count more than others. That is the bottom line, the alpha and the omega. That is the one and only thing to remember here, folks. The right wing is waging a counter revolution which wants to replace our modern democracy with one that is values wealthier citizens - and their votes - more than others. And if they have to get help from Vladimir Putin to cheat the system, who gives a fuck as far as they’re concerned. That’s what you’re up against. Expect outrage in 2018. Expect jailed political opponents. Expect rigged elections. Expect chaos and unrest. America voted to fist fuck itself in 2016 and you can stop fantasizing: there _are_ going to be consequences. Nothing you can do about that now. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15073 "2018-01-08T06:39:00Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Stephen Miller was on Jake Tapper’s show on CNN today and went ranting about how Trump is a genius and CNN is fake news, so Tapper cut him off and said it was a waste of the viewers’ time. And Miller refused to leave the set till he was escorted off by security. > [Stephen Miller Escorted Off CNN After Interview With Jake Tapper - Business Insider](http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-miller-escorted-off-cnn-2018-1) This is the first WWF (World Wrestling Federation) presidency. Stephen Miller came out looking very tense and ready to fight. I am surprised he didn’t hit Jake Tapper with a chair. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15074 "2018-01-08T07:09:48Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > This is the first WWF (World Wrestling Federation) presidency. Stephen Miller came out looking very tense and ready to fight. I am surprised he didn’t hit Jake Tapper with a chair. Tapper would have just taken his lunch money. 😃 ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15075 "2018-01-08T07:47:52Z")
This is satire, and a year old at that, but at this point in the administration it’s not the most far-fetched thing I could imagine happening; [Government In Chaos: Donald Trump Signed An Executive Order That Just Says ‘HOT CUBE’ And Federal Agencies Are Scrambling To Interpret It](http://www.clickhole.com/article/government-chaos-donald-trump-signed-executive-ord-5415) ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15076 "2018-01-08T11:05:13Z")
- Back in 1964 when Goldwater was given the nod at the Cow Palace, we said “this GOP is not the GOP that elected Ike.” - In the 1980’s and 90’s when Gingrich and Reagan were the face of the GOP, we said “this is not the GOP that stood up to Goldwater.” - In 2008, when McCain chose Palin as his running mate, we said McCain is a sensible man who doesn’t hate America. Give him a break — he needs to appeal to the bat-shit insane wing of his Party. - And now, Sarah Palin is just another laughing-stock on YouTube. _Oh, how we long for those days._ - In 2012, when Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate, we gave Romney the same pass as we gave McCain: He had to select a hateful Ayn Rand fanatic to get votes from the morons and imbeciles in his own Party. - But Ryan … _ **has become the Speaker of the House!** _ :eek: and the architect of the greatest transfer of wealth from the needy to the already-rich since the Colonization of Africa! If _ **the Republican Party** _ hadn’t inherited the mantle of the Party of Abe, Teddy, Ike and, yes, Ronnie, it _ **would be condemned today as a terrorist organization.** _ This is why whenever I see comments like the following, I wonder if we’re living in alternate realities. > [@Sherrerd](#): > > I agree with this. The ‘make him our useful idiot’ idea has the appeal of being potentially possible–he WOULD turn to Democrats for praise and validation if the GOP loses badly in the upcoming midterms (and if Democrats can stomach praising him). > > But there’s too much harm that will continue to be done by his Cabinet, as others have mentioned. And the nation won’t recover for decades from the harm done by his judicial appointments. > > He’s unfit. He must go. 😕 Do you think Pence and Ryan would have chosen more centrist Judges? And Cabinet appointments like DeVos and Pruitt are precisely who Pence and Ryan would have chosen on their own if they knew they could get away with it — if they understood the depth to which American politics have sunk. Palin and Ryan are worthy of consideration for the Vice Presidency? :smack: With that as the standard, appointments like DeVos or Pruitt now go almost unnoticed. _ **Trump’s incompetence is the only thing shielding us, slightly, from rule by the Deplorables.** _ “_He’s unfit; He must go_” ? … I’d rather say _He’s incompetent; that’s why he must stay._ Impeachment to give Pence and Ryan even more power? \* Just say No.\* ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15077 "2018-01-08T12:54:58Z")
Over the weekend, Trump famously tweeted: > [@](#): > > Trump: I’m a ‘very stable genius’ > > “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,” the President continued. “Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star … to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius … and a very stable genius at that!” > **[Trump: I’m a ‘very stable genius’ | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/06/politics/donald-trump-white-house-fitness-very-stable-genius/index.html)** > > President Donald Trump slammed reports questioning his mental stability in a series of tweets Saturday morning, writing he’s a “very stable genius” after the publication of an exposé about his first year as President put the White House into... Trump has said this before. This is from 2015: > [@](#): > > “I went to the Wharton School of Business,” he noted several times. “I’m, like, a really smart person.” > **['I'm, like, a really smart person': Donald Trump exults in outsider status](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/12/im-like-a-really-smart-person-donald-trump-exults-in-outsider-status)** > > Republican presidential candidate rails against immigrants, Mexico, the media and Jeb Bush in Phoenix rally despite protests calling on him to ‘Stop the hate’ The response came back pretty quickly – someone who’s a “genius” shouldn’t actually have to point that out. It weakens their case. And anyone who says they’re “like, really smart” probably isn’t. It sometimes seems as if Donald Trump’s purpose is to be a walking example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. The D-K effect has been invoked many times on these pages, but it’s wortb restating: > [@](#): > > In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias wherein people of low ability suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of illusory superiority derives from the metacognitive inability of low-ability persons to recognize their own ineptitude; without the self-awareness of metacognition, low-ability people cannot objectively evaluate their actual competence or incompetence > **[Dunning–Kruger effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)** > > The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. It was first described by Justin Kruger and David Dunning in 1999. Some researchers also include the opposite effect for high performers: their tendency to underestimate their skills. In popular culture, the Dunning–Kruger effect is often misunderstood as a claim about general overconfidence of people with low intelligence instead of specific overconfidence... Has anyone had the temerity to point this out to Trump? We al ought to be cautious, by the way, in bring up the Dunning-Kruger Effect. By its very definition, anyone is susceptible to it, since they don’t realize the extent of their ignorance. We are arguably all subject to the law, at least in some area of expertise. “Ask not for who the Dunning Krogers. It Krogers for Thee.” … ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15078 "2018-01-08T12:56:50Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I don’t. Just sayin’. Ah. Sorry. It sounded like you might have been complaining. > [@](#): > > Impeachment to give Pence and Ryan even more power? Just say No. Exactly. Trump is not the disease. He’s the symptom. I don’t even blame him so much. He’s been what he is all along. It’s the ones that enabled him, that allowed him to gain the presidency, and that support him now that he’s there that are to blame. This thing is not a snake. If you cut off it’s head, it’s not going to die. It’s more like one of those creatures that if you smash it, it just multiplies. The entire GOP; Pence, Ryan, McConnell, the cabinet, all of them, needs to go and that is extremely unlikely. The propaganda and the dumbing down that the right has indulged in since the 60’s has finally born fruit. Orange fruit. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15079 "2018-01-08T14:10:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > “Ask not for who the Dunning Krogers. It Krogers for Thee.” > … I’m not sure whether this is an accident of spell-check or just clever. I chuckled either way. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15080 "2018-01-08T14:24:50Z")
[Fire on The Tower!](http://www.politicususa.com/2018/01/08/fire-roof-trump-tower.html) Was there a short in the covfefe maker? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15081 "2018-01-08T15:04:27Z")
The beacons are lit! ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15082 "2018-01-08T15:10:11Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > [Fire on The Tower!](http://www.politicususa.com/2018/01/08/fire-roof-trump-tower.html) Was there a short in the covfefe maker? I’d like to think it’s payback for the house fire of the Roy Moore accuser. Since it’s not arson, it could only be karmic payback, though. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15083 "2018-01-08T15:12:32Z")
We don’t need no water … ---
**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:** [January 8, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/15084 "2018-01-08T15:47:50Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > [Fire on The Tower!](http://www.politicususa.com/2018/01/08/fire-roof-trump-tower.html) Was there a short in the covfefe maker? Someone lit a fire in a fireplace. The fire realized where it was and was trying to escape. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=753) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=755)