# 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:** 891
**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:** [March 13, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17805 "2018-03-13T17:17:47Z")
> [@BeenJammin](#): > > I guess it’s pretty stupid, **if you actually believe he had any significant role in those appointments** , apart from perfunctory briefings and paper-signings. [The buck stops here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_passing#%22The_buck_stops_here%22) Something Trump needs to learn. > [@](#): > > **“The buck stops here”** is a phrase that was popularized by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who kept a sign with that phrase on his desk in the Oval Office.[6] The phrase refers to the notion that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions. So you’re actually saying that the President is a puppet? ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17806 "2018-03-13T17:18:33Z")
> [@BeenJammin](#): > > I guess it’s pretty stupid, if you actually believe he had any significant role in those appointments, apart from perfunctory briefings and paper-signings. 90% of me knows better than to FTT. The other 10% is too lazy to look up who the right-wing conspiracy theorists are blaming for mind controlling Trump (who is now, finally, too strong a leader to be controlled - though he was weak last January - but he was strong when they elected him - because… reasons?) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17807 "2018-03-13T17:31:43Z")
> [@Airbeck](#): > > So the president now has zero control over his own cabinet, advisors, press secretary, etc? Did the deep state hire all of his people for him?:rolleyes: From all of his actions, e.g. the stacks of blank paper that he had set up to make a point or his hiring of the foreign policy advisors during the campaign (e.g. Papadop and Carter Page), I think it’s reasonable to say that Trump goes beyond thinking of the world in transactional terms to thinking of it purely in cinematic terms. If it looks like a tree, then it’s a tree. If someone tells Trump that he has a potential employee for position X for him, Trump doesn’t view that as a place to dive into qualifications, just casting. Do they look the part? Do they make me look good? That’s all that matters. Trump is further hampered by the fact that a lot of people simply don’t want to work for him. When he determined that he needed a foreign policy group, to hit the image that is expected of a candidate, they couldn’t find anyone, and that’s how they ended up with a group of nobodies. But then, being Trump and not caring about qualifications or talent, Trump let them go on to do the work anyways - screwing himself over in a variety of ways, as has been since revealed in a variety of ways. When he needed a Supreme Court Justice, he suggested his sister. That prompted someone smarter than him, but who didn’t know how to find a judge, to send a letter to the Heritage Foundation, asking them for a list. Trump picked a good looking guy from the list and moved on. It didn’t matter who the guy was or what his beliefs were. He just needed a player to fill the part and central casting found him one to pick. Probably thanks to Reince Priebus, Trump ended up with a bunch of partisan hacks in his cabinet. DeVos and Tillerson came in through partisan backing of the Republican party and Trump himself. For a year, these people have been telling Trump, a every day, that he’s stupid and doesn’t understand why he can’t do the things he wants. Now, either from getting annoyed by it or because of the stress of the Mueller investigation, he’s axing all of those people and replacing them with other people. But - being Trump - he’s using just as much depth and consideration to decide in his new cast as the old one. Eventually, he’ll get rid of everyone that doesn’t operate in the manner that makes him feel like he’s looking good, through simple attrition. But it’s probably incorrect to say that this is an evolutionary process towards Trump’s personal political policies. It’s just a march towards a new entourage of people that know how to manage and manipulate him effectively, or who serve his every whim unquestioningly. Eventually, the government will be as poorly run as his businesses were, with everyone getting Special approval to do whatever they want and stepping on each other’s toes endlessly, with no one knowing who is doing what or why. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17808 "2018-03-13T18:00:44Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > From all of his actions, e.g. the stacks of blank paper that he had set up to make a point or his hiring of the foreign policy advisors during the campaign (e.g. Papadop and Carter Page), I think it’s reasonable to say that Trump goes beyond thinking of the world in transactional terms to thinking of it purely in cinematic terms. If it looks like a tree, then it’s a tree. If someone tells Trump that he has a potential employee for position X for him, Trump doesn’t view that as a place to dive into qualifications, just casting. Do they look the part? Do they make me look good? That’s all that matters. > > Trump is further hampered by the fact that a lot of people simply don’t want to work for him. When he determined that he needed a foreign policy group, to hit the image that is expected of a candidate, they couldn’t find anyone, and that’s how they ended up with a group of nobodies. But then, being Trump and not caring about qualifications or talent, Trump let them go on to do the work anyways - screwing himself over in a variety of ways, as has been since revealed in a variety of ways. > > When he needed a Supreme Court Justice, he suggested his sister. That prompted someone smarter than him, but who didn’t know how to find a judge, to send a letter to the Heritage Foundation, asking them for a list. Trump picked a good looking guy from the list and moved on. It didn’t matter who the guy was or what his beliefs were. He just needed a player to fill the part and central casting found him one to pick. > > Probably thanks to Reince Priebus, Trump ended up with a bunch of partisan hacks in his cabinet. DeVos and Tillerson came in through partisan backing of the Republican party and Trump himself. > > For a year, these people have been telling Trump, a every day, that he’s stupid and doesn’t understand why he can’t do the things he wants. Now, either from getting annoyed by it or because of the stress of the Mueller investigation, he’s axing all of those people and replacing them with other people. But - being Trump - he’s using just as much depth and consideration to decide in his new cast as the old one. > > Eventually, he’ll get rid of everyone that doesn’t operate in the manner that makes him feel like he’s looking good, through simple attrition. But it’s probably incorrect to say that this is an evolutionary process towards Trump’s personal political policies. It’s just a march towards a new entourage of people that know how to manage and manipulate him effectively, or who serve his every whim unquestioningly. > > Eventually, the government will be as poorly run as his businesses were, with everyone getting Special approval to do whatever they want and stepping on each other’s toes endlessly, with no one knowing who is doing what or why. It might be an nice fantasy to many Americans to elect somebody who is not a politician, but if Trump had followed a more conventional route and _paid his dues_, as it were, by (say) getting elected as a congressman from New York and later a Senator, or been elected mayor of New York City and later serving as governor, or served in another president’s cabinet, or spent a career in the military and reached the rank of General… he’d have accumulated in his time a circle of politically-aware minions and a set of politically-valuable friendships, which he could then draw on to help form a politically-useful cabinet. The corporate world actually makes for pretty lousy training in this regard, especially if it’s traipsed through the “it’s all about appearances” crucible of the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17809 "2018-03-13T18:10:56Z")
**[Under Secretary Steve Goldstein was reportedly fired for issuing the statement.](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/tillerson-goldstein-statement/555488/)** That’s three significant firings in a day. Is that a new record? Will Mattis, Kelly and Mnuchin be escaping soon? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17810 "2018-03-13T18:11:19Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > As for this thread, If you’d like to see it slowed or stopped, do your part and call any Republican who represents your city, county, district or state and demand they not be stupid. Man, **Bryan** , you set impossibly high standards! ---
**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:** [March 13, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17811 "2018-03-13T18:13:31Z")
> [@](#): > > As for Pompeo and the UAE, he’s even more buddy-buddy with Saudi Arabia, so Qatar should probably be worried. He once traveled to S.A. to honor the then-Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Nayef with the CIA’s “George Tenet” Medal. Maybe this will encourage Qatar to release the information to Mueller that they were withholding. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17812 "2018-03-13T18:17:05Z")
> [@BeenJammin](#): > > You got that right! :smack: > > You must be smaaaaaart. :rolleyes: [This](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.narang.com/manuals/images/large/douche-bags-large.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.narang.com/manuals/how-to-use-douche-bags.php&h=600&w=750&tbnid=eW9bcI-cj74jPM:&tbnh=201&tbnw=251&usg=__vGT4htDd1GrrnmTKZcQsfjuSAtk%3D&vet=1&docid=AdmYw0TAXKCAeM) would likely be of interest to you. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17813 "2018-03-13T18:17:20Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > **[Under Secretary Steve Goldstein was reportedly fired for issuing the statement.](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/tillerson-goldstein-statement/555488/)** > > That’s three significant firings in a day. Is that a new record? Will Mattis, Kelly and Mnuchin be escaping soon? Heck of a shitstorm today. Worse than the Nor’easter. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17814 "2018-03-13T18:20:57Z")
> [@BeenJammin](#): > > On the contrary - it makes perfect sense. What group of high-level politicians or politico-wannabes is not salted with nefarious cocksuckers at every turn? Take any such bunch of insensitive pricks with the party label of your choice and start an investigation. See if you don’t turn up some bank fraud or or other white-collar crime. > > Idiots, the lot. At least Trump keeps weeding them out. This is fantastic. The hilarity of “4-D” chess is the gift that just keeps on giving. Nope, not Trump’s pathetic inability to do his job. Everyone is corrupt! Nothing wrong with Cheeto’s judgement, no sirree bob. Steve Bannon: Here’s a great fucking idea…put him on the National Security Council. Sebastian Gorka: Unqualified lightweight. Mike Flynn: Trump was warned repeatedly not to hire Flynn. Omarosa: LOL Scaramucci: LMFAO Hope Hicks: What, I can’t bang _all_ of my co-workers? This list could go on all day, but it’s not his fault. What are you, a fucking baboon? ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17815 "2018-03-13T18:24:49Z")
Big book release today about the Russia connection. They are trying to distract. Must be very concerned to sacrifice Tillerson. I’m sure Trump has been waiting for a big story where he needs a major distraction. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2018, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17816 "2018-03-13T18:27:12Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > What are you, a fucking baboon? No, the baboon is getting fucked. Under some zoo’s bridge. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17817 "2018-03-13T18:28:29Z")
> [@Celidin](#): > > You know, we’ve talked about what happens if the leader of North Korea tries to kidnap the Leader of America during this meeting. > > Have we considered the opposite yet? What if this is just a ploy by the Trumpites to force regime change the old fashioned way? Maybe they’ll kidnap each other? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17818 "2018-03-13T18:35:07Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > [This](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.narang.com/manuals/images/large/douche-bags-large.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.narang.com/manuals/how-to-use-douche-bags.php&h=600&w=750&tbnid=eW9bcI-cj74jPM:&tbnh=201&tbnw=251&usg=__vGT4htDd1GrrnmTKZcQsfjuSAtk%3D&vet=1&docid=AdmYw0TAXKCAeM) would likely be of interest to you. Are you running some sort of matchmaking site? ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17819 "2018-03-13T18:35:25Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > It might be an nice fantasy to many Americans to elect somebody who is not a politician, but if Trump had followed a more conventional route and _paid his dues_, as it were, by (say) getting elected as a congressman from New York and later a Senator, or been elected mayor of New York City and later serving as governor, or served in another president’s cabinet, or spent a career in the military and reached the rank of General… he’d have accumulated in his time a circle of politically-aware minions and a set of politically-valuable friendships, which he could then draw on to help form a politically-useful cabinet. The corporate world actually makes for pretty lousy training in this regard, especially if it’s traipsed through the “it’s all about appearances” crucible of the 1980s. Supposedly a significant reason for his election was that he was a (great) businessman, not a politician, thus he’d shake things up, do things differently, and make everything better simply because he was a Washington outsider. Maybe, _maybe_, this might have moved things in an overall positive direction, if we had actually elected a ‘true’ and truly successful businessman. Hasn’t Trump always ever headed up family-run businesses, not having to temper his decisions and behavior to answer to a board of directors, unlike (I’m assuming here) the vast majority of CEOs? ---
**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:** [March 13, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17820 "2018-03-13T18:40:02Z")
> [@tripthicket](#): > > Supposedly a significant reason for his election was that he was a (great) businessman, not a politician, thus he’d shake things up, do things differently, and make everything better simply because he was a Washington outsider. And a whole bunch of voters thought that he couldn’t possibly be as bad as people were saying. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17821 "2018-03-13T18:43:40Z")
Well, at least he finally stood up to Russia. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17822 "2018-03-13T18:45:04Z")
Papadopoulos says Trump encouraged him to set up a meeting with Putini. > **[Papadopoulos says that Trump personally encouraged him to arrange meeting...](https://www.yahoo.com/news/papadopoulos-says-trump-personally-encouraged-arrange-meeting-putin-new-book-reports-010056370.html?.tsrc=bell-brknews)** > > According to “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump,” George Papadopoulos told federal investigators that during the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump personally encouraged him to... ICE spokesman in San Francisco resigns, bashes Trump. > **[ICE Spokesman Quits, Bashes Trump Administration On Immigration Raids](https://www.yahoo.com/news/ice-spokesman-quits-bashes-trump-094819988.html)** > > James Schwab said that officials have spread misleading information about a recent immigration crackdown. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17823 "2018-03-13T18:46:20Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Well, at least he finally stood up to Russia. Are you talking about the Tilleson firing? Don’t forget that T-Man was fired the day after he disputed Sarah Huckster, and accepted the British finding that the Russian spy in London was poisoned on orders from Russia. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/17824 "2018-03-13T18:48:15Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > Maybe they’ll kidnap each other? Maybe they plan to switch places (a la “Parent Trap”) and see if anyone notices… or if the level of crazy from both sides stays relatively the same so everyone just thinks it’s business as usual (for certain definitions of “usual”)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=890) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=892)