# 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:** 931
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18605 "2018-03-29T18:49:45Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > True enough, one doesn’t get to be an admiral without some leadership skills. But, this still sounds like “Take fifty pounds off my weight and gush about me like a schoolgirl and good things will happen to you, buh-lieve me!” [His Wiki bio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronny_Jackson) shows essentially zero administrative experience at any level. ---
**Author:** ![SaneBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SaneBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaneBill)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18606 "2018-03-29T19:11:42Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > “Corpse” leaps to mind. I learned [here](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=550852) that “corps” and “corpse” are pronounced differently. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18607 "2018-03-29T20:13:17Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Trump finally stands up to the oil industry! The Federal government will no longer pay for OIL paintings! > > [Trump Signs Bill That Bars Federal Gov’t From Paying For Oil Paintings - TPM – Talking Points Memo](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-cassidy-law-against-oil-painting) > > Actually I don’t have any real issue with this one way or the other. Apparently it will save $500,000 a year. OK, whatever. I suspect most Presidential portraits will just be paid for with private donations now, as was the case with the Obamas’ portraits. Man, can you imagine being the next President and having to see a portrait of Trump hanging somewhere in the White House…like over your bed in the Presidential bedroom? It’d probably look a lot cooler (and save money!) if they did it in velvet like those old rock posters and put a blacklight on it. His hair would really look on fire then. > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Who didn’t allow them to do their jobs? Trump? Um, the government. The COE can plan, make ready troops and materiel and present action initiatives all they want…they can’t just act unilaterally unless in an an urgent situation in a combat zone, since their funding relies on the taxpayers. Although in the case of Puerto Rico, the government should have had the foresight to have the COE completely ready to go given that there was plenty of advance warning in the timing of the hurricane and it’s strength, especially since the sheer destruction it had already wreaked before it got to PR was well known to anyone with a TV. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18608 "2018-03-29T20:15:11Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Although in the case of Puerto Rico, the government should have had the foresight to have the COE completely ready to go given that there was plenty of advance warning in the timing of the hurricane and it’s strength, especially since the sheer destruction it had already wreaked before it got to PR was well known to anyone with a TV. When you put it like that, it seems like the government was either incompetent or uncaring. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18609 "2018-03-29T20:21:21Z")
I \*\*will \*\*get to where I can read “COE” and not think it means “Church of England”. I **will**. ---
**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:** [March 29, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18610 "2018-03-29T20:34:06Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > I \*\*will \*\*get to where I can read “COE” and not think it means “Church of England”. I **will**. Why should you? The proper acronym is USACE, which is also their sub-domain at army . mil ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18611 "2018-03-29T20:42:02Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Michael Cohen has hired a lawyer of his own, MAGA = My Attorneys Got Attorneys! ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18612 "2018-03-29T22:01:49Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > When you put it like that, it seems like the government was either incompetent or uncaring. Well…I’m sure you recollect whom was Commander in Chief at the time… “Sir, we have an extremely urgent situation in Puerto Rico!” “I’m golfing, and plus it’s not like they’re an actual state with real US citizens or anything…shit, they were all unemployed anyway, let them fix it. They need something to do.” ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18613 "2018-03-29T23:26:25Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Why should you? The proper acronym is USACE, which is also their sub-domain at army . mil I deal with the Corps a fair amount at work. Internally, I always use ACOE. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18614 "2018-03-29T23:29:03Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > I deal with the Corps a fair amount at work. Internally, I always use ACOE. What’s your impression of your interaction with them? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18615 "2018-03-29T23:59:01Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Michael Cohen has hired a lawyer of his own, David Schwartz, who is on the talk show circuit and doing a really bad job, from Cohen’s point of view. > 1-On Wednesday night, Schwartz argued on CNN that Trump was not even aware of the NDA with Stormy Daniels. Doesn’t that **make the lawsuit moot** , then? > 2-This morning, on Megyn Kelly, **he admitted that the NDA just before the election was an attempt to help Trump’s election** , and therefore could be seen as an illegal campaign contribution. > 3-Kelly also discussed Stormy Daniels’s claim that somebody (not naming Cohen by name) had threatened her, and Kelly brought up images of several other cases of Cohen making threats against people right out in the open. She then talked about death threats she had gotten after the debate when Cohen had told people that somebody should gut her. **Schwartz tried several arguments as to why that was a good thing: a-everyone should want an employee like this** ; b-Kelly and Cohen had since reconciled, which Kelly said was not true; c-Cohen was somehow trying to “help” Kelly. Kelly’s live audience laughed at him. > > [Michael Cohen’s lawyer gets laughed at by studio audience during disastrous NBC interview – ThinkProgress](https://thinkprogress.org/studio-audience-erupts-in-laughter-at-michael-cohens-lawyer-during-disastrous-nbc-interview-0c785aabdc17/) The ratings for the reveal—when David Schwartz pulls off the latex mask to reveal “he” is Hillary Clinton—will be phenomenal. emphasis mine ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18616 "2018-03-30T00:04:38Z")
[EPA’s Pruitt lived in DC condo connected to energy lobbyist](https://apnews.com/8c8e3a9b571543319cf3744f90da6809/EPA's-Pruitt-lived-in-DC-condo-connected-to-energy-lobbyist) > [@](#): > > ABC News first reported Thursday that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had been living in a building on a leafy street about a block from the U.S. Capitol. Records show three units inside the building are listed as belonging to a corporation co-owned by the wife of J. Steven Hart, the chairman and CEO of the powerhouse lobbying firm Williams and Jensen PLLC. It was not immediately clear how much Pruitt was paying for the home. > > The firm’s clients include Exxon Mobil Corp. and the major liquefied natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy Inc. > > A Republican who previously served as the state attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt has long been a champion of the oil and gas industry. In the year he has served as the Trump administration’s top environmental official, Pruitt has moved to scrap, gut or replace numerous environmental regulations opposed by the industry while boosting the continued burning of fossil fuels, which is the primary cause of climate change. > > In December, Pruitt and members of his staff spent about $40,000 in taxpayer funds to fly to Morocco to help encourage the North African kingdom to import liquefied natural gas from the United States. Cheniere, the lobbying client of Hart’s firm, is currently the only exporter of liquefied natural gas from the continental United States. > [@](#): > > In a statement to The Associated Press, Hart said Pruitt is a casual friend from Oklahoma who moved into the building in early 2017. Hart said he had no contact with Pruitt for many months, other than a brief exchange at the National Prayer Breakfast in February. > > “Pruitt signed a market based, short-term lease for a condo owned partially by my wife,” Hart said, according to a statement released by his firm. “Pruitt paid all rent owed as agreed to in the lease. My wife does not, and has not ever lobbied the EPA on any matters.” > > Hart’s wife, Vicki Hart, is also a lobbyist, focusing on health care issues. Some aren’t buying it: > [@](#): > > “Scott Pruitt, who is supposed to protect our families from pollution, literally lived in a fossil fuel lobbyist’s house,” said Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club. “The administrator of the EPA should stand up to corporate polluters, not live in their homes while pushing their agenda at every turn.” ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18617 "2018-03-30T00:07:01Z")
Historians are going to have a _lot_ of trouble definitively answering the question “who was the most corrupt member of the Trump Administration?” ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18618 "2018-03-30T00:30:47Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > What’s your impression of your interaction with them? The Corps or the people in the Corps? The people have struck me as well-intended hard workers who really want to do the right thing. The Corps as an entity? Under-funded for their mandates, arrogant, and unprepared for the modern world. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18619 "2018-03-30T00:53:25Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > I \*\*will \*\*get to where I can read “COE” and not think it means “Church of England”. I **will**. To me, COE means [Cab Over Engine](https://www.google.com/search?q=coe+trucks&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=isnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBj7-a6pLaAhUE6mMKHSUbBXgQ_AUIESgB&biw=1024&bih=672&dpr=2) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18620 "2018-03-30T00:58:03Z")
LOL - I always think Center Of Excellence ---
**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:** [March 30, 2018, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18621 "2018-03-30T01:12:41Z")
To me, it always means the [South Hill rapist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Coe). ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18622 "2018-03-30T02:03:02Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > The Corps or the people in the Corps? The people have struck me as well-intended hard workers who really want to do the right thing. The Corps as an entity? Under-funded for their mandates, arrogant, and unprepared for the modern world. Arrogant and unprepared? In what way? ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18623 "2018-03-30T06:26:34Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > I \*\*will \*\*get to where I can read “COE” and not think it means “Church of England”. I **will**. > [@jasg](#): > > To me, COE means [Cab Over Engine](https://www.google.com/search?q=coe+trucks&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=isnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBj7-a6pLaAhUE6mMKHSUbBXgQ_AUIESgB&biw=1024&bih=672&dpr=2) 🙂 > [@zoid](#): > > LOL - I always think Center Of Excellence For me, it’s Conservation of Energy. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18624 "2018-03-30T06:33:45Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Historians are going to have a _lot_ of trouble definitively answering the question “who was the most corrupt member of the Trump Administration?” Nah, that’s easy. It’s Vladimir Putin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=930) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=932)