# 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:** 952
**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:** [April 12, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19025 "2018-04-12T18:32:05Z")
[Trump is looking to re-enter us into TPP.](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/382867-trump-orders-officials-to-look-into-re-entering-tpp-trade-pact) Standing against this thing is what helped win him the blue collar joes of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. This was huge in a lot of union halls across the rust belt, to the point where union members were standing united \*against \*Pres. Obama on it, very vocally. If we re-enter the TPP, that may be the thing that turns a lot of the rank-and-file labor folks (the ones that actually believed the nonsense that the Oranganus cared about them) against Trump. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19026 "2018-04-12T18:38:26Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > [Yeah! Let’s re-enter the TPP](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/trump-directs-top-economic-advisers-to-look-at-re-entering-tpp) > > Fascinating. > [@](#): > > Trump floated the idea of re-entering the TPP as recently as January, telling CNBC at the time that he would consider signing back onto the agreement “if we were able to make a substantially better deal.” Why would anyone give the US a better deal after being shown that Trump doesn’t respect existing deals? Anyone with any economic sense is making long term plans to reduce their businesses’ vulnerabilities to random acts of Trumpiness. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19027 "2018-04-12T18:39:26Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > [Trump is looking to re-enter us into TPP.](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/382867-trump-orders-officials-to-look-into-re-entering-tpp-trade-pact) Standing against this thing is what helped win him the blue collar joes of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. This was huge in a lot of union halls across the rust belt, to the point where union members were standing united \*against \*Pres. Obama on it, very vocally. If we re-enter the TPP, that may be the thing that turns a lot of the rank-and-file labor folks (the ones that actually believed the nonsense that the Oranganus cared about them) against Trump. Hey, I posted that already! Also, you are wrong. The people who were against it were against it because Trump was against it. Now that he’s for it, they will be for it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19028 "2018-04-12T19:00:10Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > [Yeah! Let’s re-enter the TPP](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/trump-directs-top-economic-advisers-to-look-at-re-entering-tpp) > > Fascinating. I’m suddenly feeling kind of grateful for my Crazy Relatives. I’m sure if I hadn’t had practice surviving them, my head would have exploded. > [@](#): > > Trump floated the idea of re-entering the TPP as recently as January, telling CNBC at the time that he would consider signing back onto the agreement “if we were able to make a substantially better deal.” That’s not really relevant; just his usual “what will make me look best” stuff. It’s a knee-jerk reaction involving the same amount of reasoning as saying his relationship with Kim Jong-Un is the greatest, apparently without remembering he’d been insulting him just a few minutes prior. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19029 "2018-04-12T19:06:31Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > [Trump is looking to re-enter us into TPP.](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/382867-trump-orders-officials-to-look-into-re-entering-tpp-trade-pact) Standing against this thing is what helped win him the blue collar joes of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. This was huge in a lot of union halls across the rust belt, to the point where union members were standing united \*against \*Pres. Obama on it, very vocally. If we re-enter the TPP, that may be the thing that turns a lot of the rank-and-file labor folks (the ones that actually believed the nonsense that the Oranganus cared about them) against Trump. I just had a little fantasy wherein Trump came to the realization that Obama was, by far, the smarter and more competent president. This epiphany leads him to undo all of the damage he’s done so far, including championing Obamacare and repealing the fat cat tax cuts. He then declines to run in 2020 and disappears from public life forever and ever. The end. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19030 "2018-04-12T19:11:46Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Why would anyone give the US a better deal after being shown that Trump doesn’t respect existing deals? > > Anyone with any economic sense is making long term plans to reduce their businesses’ vulnerabilities to random acts of Trumpiness. Here’s why it works. Trump is so insanely irrational that no one else, foreign or domestic, has the slightest idea what he might do. Typically, world leaders look to a US leader and find a degree of calm deliberation about them. With Trump, they see a child who lacks discipline and restraint. It’s Trump’s craziness that is protecting him. No one believes he will or won’t to whatever, even the unthinkable. Any leader who understands child psychology will do well negotiating with Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19031 "2018-04-12T19:51:26Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I just had a little fantasy wherein Trump came to the realization that Obama was, by far, the smarter and more competent president. This epiphany leads him to undo all of the damage he’s done so far, including championing Obamacare and repealing the fat cat tax cuts. He then declines to run in 2020 and disappears from public life forever and ever. The end. This would require GOD ALMIGHTY to reach down into his tiny narcissistic weasel cranium and implant a conscience and Human empathy. I’m not even sure that five grams of really good shrooms could give him a glance at that level of Humanity and Humility. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19032 "2018-04-12T19:55:02Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Any leader who understands child psychology will do well negotiating with Trump. Kim Jong-Un: Ok, I’ll go on American TV and call you the greatest American President and one of the wisest men who has ever lived. We’ll also rename our reeducation camps as the Donald Trump Centers for Education and pay you $5 million in counterfeit $100 bills every year as a consulting fee. All we want is an end to sanctions and normalized relations. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19033 "2018-04-12T20:13:30Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Kim Jong-Un: Ok, I’ll go on American TV and call you the greatest American President and one of the wisest men who has ever lived. We’ll also rename our reeducation camps as the Donald Trump Centers for Education and pay you $5 million in counterfeit $100 bills every year as a consulting fee. All we want is an end to sanctions and normalized relations. Might not even need _that_ much. Kim could say “What _happened_ to you, man? You used to be such a winner,” and Trump will agree to anything if Kim will admit that, yeah, Donald, you’re a winner. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19034 "2018-04-12T20:21:22Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I swear that place must be a revolving door as well, because I have vague recollections of any number of Republican politicians taking that spot in the past decade. It’s like being the drummer for Spinal Tap. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19035 "2018-04-12T20:22:33Z")
Just putting this here: > [@](#): > > “Today I awoke to learn that a confidential agreement that I had with AMI (The National Enquirer) with regard to a story about President Trump was leaked to the press,” the doorman, Dino Sajudin, said in a statement obtained by CNN. “I can confirm that while working at Trump World Tower I was instructed not to criticize President Trump’s former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with President Trump which produced a child.” > **[Former doorman involved in story of alleged Trump affair speaks](https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/12/media/trump-national-enquirer-doorman/index.html)** > > The publisher of the National Enquirer reportedly paid a former Trump Tower doorman to keep him quiet about rumors of Donald Trump's sex life. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19036 "2018-04-12T20:25:31Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > But instead the really really smart man who’s really really rich had to save 130 grand by trying to stiff his long-time lawyer, or pass it off as a campaign expense. The legal issue is that he _didn’t_ pass it off as a campaign expense, when it should have been, because it was made just before the election in order to influence it. And people get thrown in prison for violation of campaign finance laws. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19037 "2018-04-12T20:25:42Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Hey, I posted that already! > > Also, you are wrong. The people who were against it were against it because Trump was against it. Now that he’s for it, they will be for it. No, labor was against it, progressives were against it. Trump, like Bernie, got a lot of labor support because of his stance against TPP. Those labor folks were against it before Trump said boo about it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19038 "2018-04-12T20:56:06Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I just had a little fantasy wherein Trump came to the realization that Obama was, by far, the smarter and more competent president. This epiphany leads him to undo all of the damage he’s done so far, including championing Obamacare and repealing the fat cat tax cuts. He then declines to run in 2020 and disappears from public life forever and ever. The end. “I’ll have what he’s having.” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19039 "2018-04-12T21:02:22Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > “I’ll have what he’s having.” “But not quite that much-I don’t think I would survive the massive hangover.” ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19040 "2018-04-12T21:22:36Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I saw that too. Note that what they’re doing there is defining the narrative so that in pretending the Cohen raid was about the sex they can claim that Democrats are hypocrites for excusing Bill Clinton’s affairs. Never mind that the sex itself was never the issue from a legal standpoint and in fact if Trump had paid Daniels himself and signed the NDA this would have been much less of an issue, nor that aside from paying Daniels Cohen is also connected to Russia in about half a dozen ways nor that there are apparently other things including whatever is going on with the taxi medallions. No, it’s about the sex and THERE’S NO EVIDENCE ABOUT RUSSIA OR ANY ACTUAL CRIMES LA LA LA WE’RE NOT LISTENING What they really don’t seem to “get” is, a lot of us (myself included) don’t give a fuck about the sex shit. I want to know why they were ALL knee deep in Russian agents and Russian money. Forget the sex. I want to know about the treason. The sex and the money are just how you connect ALL the dots. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2018, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19041 "2018-04-12T22:13:25Z")
[Trump asked Comey to investigate whether the pee tape was real.](https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/comey-reveals-trump-asked-research-called-pee-tape-ease-melanias-mind/) I.e., it’s real. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19042 "2018-04-12T22:18:28Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [Trump asked Comey to investigate whether the pee tape was real.](https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/comey-reveals-trump-asked-research-called-pee-tape-ease-melanias-mind/) > > I.e., it’s real. Well, the tape may not be real, but it really happened. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2018, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19043 "2018-04-12T22:20:40Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [Trump asked Comey to investigate whether the pee tape was real.](https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/comey-reveals-trump-asked-research-called-pee-tape-ease-melanias-mind/) > > I.e., it’s real. Yeah, that does seem to be a slam dunk: Trump wouldn’t have asked Comey to investigate whether there was video of something he _hadn’t_ done. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19044 "2018-04-12T22:29:08Z")
The only thing important about the pee tape is the extent to which Trump is vulnerable to blackmail and manipulation as a result of it. The answer to that question appears to be, “very.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=951) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=953)