# 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:** 922
**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:** [March 24, 2018, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18425 "2018-03-24T12:17:37Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > For the record, I sold everything just before they passed the tax cut. It was going to be all downhill from there either way and while there was the potential of some lingering shine on things if the measure passed, it seemed like holding out for that wasn’t worth the risk if the tax bill hadn’t made it. > > I would expect the economy to mostly be going downhill until at least shortly before the midterm vote and potentially beyond. If you’re already past or approaching retirement age, this was probably not a bad move. I fully expect a market carnage in the near future and I don’t really know which way to turn. Penalties for early withdrawal make touching a lot of my retirement impractical, and I could still use more growth anyway. I just hope that when this country finally wakes up and ‘gets it’, that there’s time for the market to recover - assuming there hasn’t been permanent damage to the US by that point. Some things to consider. The standard advice that the market always eventually rides out economic bumps and recovers is not historically accurate. After the stock market collapse of 1929, it took decades for that kind of investment to return. If you owned stocks in the summer of 1929 and were then wiped out by its collapse in October of that year, you would have not seen the index at those levels again until 1956. We were also lucky that the United States was about to undergo major industrial expansion and had lots of room to grow during that period. I’m not so sure that would be the case next time. There would be a recovery, but a different kind of recovery. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2018, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18426 "2018-03-24T12:23:01Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I too took my biggest hit ever. During the crash of 2009 I didn’t have as much money invested. I’m not planning on cashing out because like SoP said cash doesn’t seem very useful either. I might move more money into international funds in case the chickens come home to roost more heavily in America with its added debt. I worry about the debts now, not because I’m a debt hawk, but because the government now seems to have abandoned even the pretense of operating in a fiscally responsible manner. I also find it particularly idiotic that we’re now waging a trade war against our economy’s biggest bankers and investors - at a time when we’re almost inevitably going to need to ask for more foreign money. The idiots in Manhattan who really, truly believed that this president would be a great economic chief just because of tax cuts and deregulation simply don’t get it. All of those gains are going to be wiped out by this president’s sheer abject idiocy. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18427 "2018-03-24T12:51:18Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I worry about the debts now, not because I’m a debt hawk, but because the government now seems to have abandoned even the pretense of operating in a fiscally responsible manner. It’s not permanent. The next time Democrats are in power the deficit will become a crisis again. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18428 "2018-03-24T15:08:14Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Do you know that I wasn’t even talking to you in the first place? The way you make clear what post you’re replying to is by quoting that post. You didn’t so how were any of us to know? (Rhetorical question. No need to answer.) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18429 "2018-03-24T15:52:50Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > A thought experiment: if we got today’s news in the manner of 1968: 30 minutes per day from Walter Cronkite…what would make the cut? Back in the day, Uncle Walt took the entire text of a _CBS Evening News_ broadcast and set it to 12-point type, the same size as newspapers use. It covered less than half a page. He concluded and said publicly that anyone who depended on TV news as his only source of finding out what’s going on “is foolish.” And that was when the networks considered news was a public service, not an income stream. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18430 "2018-03-24T16:45:04Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I too took my biggest hit ever. During the crash of 2009 I didn’t have as much money invested. I’m not planning on cashing out because like SoP said cash doesn’t seem very useful either. I might move more money into international funds in case the chickens come home to roost more heavily in America with its added debt. (Emphasis added) That is the wise move. Trying to time the market (by selling when you think it will drop) is a documented way to lose more money. (Human nature being what it is, the tendency is to sell after things drop and then start buying again after prices have gone up.) I rode out three market dips by just staying the course. 2008-2009 was the worst, I lost 42% of my retirement savings - but it recovered in 18 months. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18431 "2018-03-24T16:57:09Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > (Emphasis added) > > That is the wise move. Trying to time the market (by selling when you think it will drop) is a documented way to lose more money. (Human nature being what it is, the tendency is to sell after things drop and then start buying again after prices have gone up.) > > I rode out three market dips by just staying the course. 2008-2009 was the worst, I lost 42% of my retirement savings - but it recovered in 18 months. 1/3 of our retirement funds are already and have always been in foreign investments. We are going to ‘Ride the Storm Out’. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18432 "2018-03-24T18:45:28Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I too took my biggest hit ever. During the crash of 2009 I didn’t have as much money invested. At the moment, the S&P 500 is still up since Trump took office. However, if he continues his trade war, the Trump Slump will really start. > **[Here's how much the stock market is still up since Donald Trump took office](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/23/heres-how-much-the-stock-market-is-still-up-since-donald-trump-took-office.html)** > > Trump still has a large cushion before the Dow's post-inauguration gains disappear. > [@](#): > > President Trump still has a large cushion before the Dow’s post-inauguration gains disappear. > The Dow closed at 19,827.25 on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2017, which means it has about 3,700 points to go before the Trump rally gains are gone. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18433 "2018-03-24T19:05:35Z")
Ok, sorry for the hijack into the market - back to the original purpose of the thread. If you are having trouble keeping up, here is a handy website. [Trump News Today - What the Fuck Just Happened Today](https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18434 "2018-03-24T20:32:06Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > Ok, sorry for the hijack into the market - back to the original purpose of the thread… Thanks, but by now you should know that no one on this board can resist a good hijack. (Just don’t ask “So, everyone’s cat healthy?”) ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18435 "2018-03-24T20:57:45Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I worry about the debts now, not because I’m a debt hawk, but because the government now seems to have abandoned even the pretense of operating in a fiscally responsible manner. I also find it particularly idiotic that we’re now waging a trade war against our economy’s biggest bankers and investors - at a time when we’re almost inevitably going to need to ask for more foreign money. > > The idiots in Manhattan who really, truly believed that this president would be a great economic chief just because of tax cuts and deregulation simply don’t get it. All of those gains are going to be wiped out by this president’s sheer abject idiocy. One thing … it shows what a bunch of lying scheming motherfuckers the Repub “deficit hawks” are. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18436 "2018-03-24T20:58:46Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > It’s not permanent. The next time Democrats are in power the deficit will become a crisis again. Of course. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18437 "2018-03-24T21:21:22Z")
How about Nice Gun News of the Day? Trump is making overtures about banning bump stocks. Ok - I’m going to do something really gross and use [Fox](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/23/trump-administration-bans-bump-stocks-all-devices-that-turn-legal-weapons-into-machine-guns.html) for my cite, partly out of morbid curiosity to see if they might present this in any constructive way, but then the following jumped out at me right away: > [@](#): > > Trump wrote in the memo, “Although the Obama administration repeatedly concluded that particular bump stock type devices were lawful to purchase and possess, I sought further clarification of the law restricting fully automatic machine guns.” Oh I see - so this is all on Obama, while you, President Rotting Pile of Discarded Liposuction, are the White Knight swooping in to correct all this? Sure, while it _did_ happen under BO’s watch, it’s [not as cut and dry](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/oct/06/national-rifle-association/nra-claim-obama-approved-bump-stocks/)as you’d hoped, Donaldo: > [@](#): > > We indeed found two occasions in which ATF, a bureau within the executive branch, decided it could not regulate bump stocks during the Obama administration. > > These decisions allowed two companies to sell bump stocks. It’s important to note this was not a statement of Obama’s preferred policy, which called for more regulation of guns, but was what the agency determined it had to do under the language of current law. So is NRA putz knuckle Chris Cox going to escort Trump into a room somewhere, again? Not a cat-owner, but I’m sure it would be in excellent shape if I had one. And doubly fuck Fox - first site that I’ve seen in a long time with an unsafe internet connection (lock with red line through it) ---
**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:** [March 24, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18438 "2018-03-24T21:43:04Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > …President Rotting Pile of Discarded Liposuction…? WHOA! Good one! :eek: Both my cats are fine. ---
**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 24, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18439 "2018-03-24T22:37:28Z")
Trump went golfing during the March For Our Lives marches today, and then tweeted about the attack in France yesterday, but hasn’t said a word about the marches. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2018, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18440 "2018-03-24T22:44:14Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Trump went golfing during the March For Our Lives marches today, and then tweeted about the attack in France yesterday, but hasn’t said a word about the marches. Do you know if/how FOX covered it? ETA: the March, not thump’s golf game. ---
**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 24, 2018, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18441 "2018-03-24T22:51:38Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Do you know if/how FOX covered it? > > ETA: the March, not thump’s golf game. Not a single headline on the front page of their website, though there is a bumper at the bottom that sneaks up out of nowhere linking to live coverage of the marches. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18442 "2018-03-24T22:52:16Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Do you know if/how FOX covered it? > > ETA: the March, not thump’s golf game. Yes - [www.foxnews.com](http://www.foxnews.com) - Listed as a “Hot Topic” at the top and as a Live Coverage alert at the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18443 "2018-03-24T23:02:01Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Do you know if/how FOX covered it? > > ETA: the March, not thump’s golf game. Anecdotal: I wondered the same thing, as I make it a point to skip over that channel, but curiosity got the best of me. I literally only tuned in for about 20 seconds, but the main thrust just how professional and well organized everything was. I believe the quote was something along the lines of, “this may have started as grassroots, but there is obviously some big money behind all of this.” ---
**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:** [March 25, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18444 "2018-03-25T00:23:29Z")
Currently [FoxNews.com](http://FoxNews.com)’s feature story is quite negative on Trump. I check the site daily and I don’t recall anything so anti-Trump being featured so prominently. Could the tides be turning? > [@](#): > > [\*\*Trump, GOP leaders face strong backlash over approval of $1.3 trillion spending package > \*\*](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/24/trump-gop-leaders-face-backlash-over-1-3-trillion-spending-package.html) > President Trump faced losing support from his base in the wake of his decision Friday to sign a controversial and much-derided $1.3 trillion spending bill – over not only its size but its failure to fund his campaign promise of a wall on the southern border. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=921) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=923)