# 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:** 955
**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 13, 2018, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19085 "2018-04-13T13:10:43Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > But why would he ask comey to prove a negative? How could you ask someone repeatedly to prove that something doesn’t exist? That’s what I’m trying to wrap my head around. If there’s absolutely positively no way a videotape of you could possibly exist (because you never were part of what supposedly took place, for instance), why on earth would you ask the head of the FBI to prove that? > > A man who has never been in a room with Russian prostitutes peeing on a bed doesn’t worry about the existence of a videotape that shows Russian prostitutes peeing on a bed. > > But a man who has? Well, he’s the guy who starts sweating once the rumors start… It’s already been pointed out that the answer to your question is “Trump is stupid”, but I think it’s worth expounding on. “You can’t prove a negative” is not something that comes intuitively to people, as can be seen in millions of conspiracy theory discussions every day all over the world. It is entirely plausible that Trump doesn’t understand this, or even if he sort of does, that all he wanted was for the FBI to say “We’ve researched this extensively, and it’s not true.” I don’t think Comey’s tale can be taken as evidence the event took place. Trump wanting the FBI’s “It didn’t happen” to add to his own “I’m a germophobe and never have to pay for sex” seems more plausible than Trump asking the FBI to look into proving the non-existence of something he knew could exist. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19086 "2018-04-13T13:16:32Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > [Trump poised to pardon Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trump-poised-pardon-scooter-libby-dick-cheneys/story?id=54433032) > [@j666](#): > > Damn, he’s openly selling indulgences now. +1 Like Upvote If Trump is Tetzel (or even Pope Leo), who is the Martin Luther who will come forth and deliver their 95 Tweetsis? ---
**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:** [April 13, 2018, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19087 "2018-04-13T13:38:31Z")
This will be a much better country when we can collectively outvote angry white men. And I’m speaking as an (occasionally) angry white man. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19088 "2018-04-13T13:46:35Z")
Quick look back on the tariffs - Sen. Pat Roberts was mentioning on PBS when he and representatives from ranchers, farmers, and growers were talking to President Mute Button recently, the latter tried to propose to them the offer of billions of dollars in aid to offset any tariff retaliation. Their response was key in getting through to that bloated pinata of a papier-mache Mesphistopheles: short, simple, punchy, memorable phrases that his diminishing cognition can grasp, somewhat. “We want trade, not aid.” Boom. It rhymes, and most importantly, it’s just five words, and those ones apparently resonated with Dat Guyee. Maybe when a nuclear crisis is looming with North Korea, and Asshole is feeling trigger happy, hopefully someone will be nearby to proffer a quick little “We want whores, not wars.” “Kim relies on you, and also likes your 'do”. “Peace, for Pussy”. (ok the last one didn’t rhyme, but hopefully the alliteration and sibilance made up for it.) Meanwhile 11 other nations have gone on to make their own trade deal. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2018, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19089 "2018-04-13T15:01:01Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Quick look back on the tariffs - > Sen. Pat Roberts was mentioning on PBS when he and representatives from ranchers, farmers, and growers were talking to President Mute Button recently, the latter tried to propose to them the offer of billions of dollars in aid to offset any tariff retaliation. > Their response was key in getting through to that bloated pinata of a papier-mache Mesphistopheles: short, simple, punchy, memorable phrases that his diminishing cognition can grasp, somewhat. > “We want trade, not aid.” > Boom. It rhymes, and most importantly, it’s just five words, and those ones apparently resonated with Dat Guyee. > Maybe when a nuclear crisis is looming with North Korea, and Asshole is feeling trigger happy, hopefully someone will be nearby to proffer a quick little “We want whores, not wars.” “Kim relies on you, and also likes your 'do”. “Peace, for Pussy”. (ok the last one didn’t rhyme, but hopefully the alliteration and sibilance made up for it.) > Meanwhile 11 other nations have gone on to make their own trade deal. What the fake billionaire moron doesn’t seem to understand is that what he calls aid is a subsidy and likely to seen as foreign trading partners as a trade barrier. Trumpian economics assumes that farmers, steelworkers, and everyone else negatively impacted by tariffs wants to do business in the United States only and doesn’t want foreign consumers, which is utter nonsense and something that people around him are trying to break down into simple graphics with stick figures in an attempt to jam it into his thick skull. Meanwhile he apparently is warming up to the idea of the TPP, but one wonders why now? And why on one hand does Trump want to reconsider a trade agreement that his base and much of populist America doesn’t like at the same time that he’s threatening a destructive trade war. I can’t imagine TPP countries taking him seriously. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19090 "2018-04-13T15:08:20Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Even Trump understands that there can’t be a video of something he didn’t do. I think. But he doesn’t understand that you can’t ‘prove’ it doesn’t exist and he doesn’t understand that asking the FBI to investigate ‘that it deosn’t exist’ actually gives his ‘enemies’ more amunition - “FBI opens investigation into PEE tape” ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19091 "2018-04-13T15:13:09Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I can’t imagine TPP countries taking him seriously. I think TPP countries are welcoming the idea of the US potentially re-entering the agreement. I also think that not a single one is holding their breath with respect to this being accomplished by the orange buffoon & clowns. As for president Orange Fucking Moron, someone clearly explained to him using small words and short sentences the way in which the TPP was structured as a control mechanism on Chinese unfair trade practices. All he got out of it is that this is an effective way to threaten China from scaling up a trade war. China isn’t dumb. They will tone down the rhetoric with the fat orange idiot, but not their trade policies. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19092 "2018-04-13T15:25:43Z")
A President faced with false rumors of a pee tape might reasonably think, “I know the pee tape doesn’t exist, because I’ve never done that. This rumor is a total lie. I want the FBI find out who is behind it and expose the fraudulent origins of the story once and for all.” That hypothetical President probably wouldn’t frame the question as “If there’s even a 1% chance that it exists, I want to know.” Previously, I was inclined to think the pee tape thing was a false rumor. Now I’m pretty sure it exists. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19093 "2018-04-13T15:27:46Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Hey, take a look at that train wreck over there. > > Ok, you can stop looking now. > > Seriously, stop looking. > > Come on, there is stuff to do elsewhere. > > Please, take your eyes off of that mess. > > I give up, I will check on you later. What “over there”? We’re all on this train. No matter where we look, we see the process of the train we are riding in being wrecked. ---
**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 13, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19094 "2018-04-13T15:28:43Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Another classic [_New York Daily News_ cover](http://thehill.com/homenews/media/382965-ny-daily-news-cover-hits-trump-over-comey-book-revelations)… The NY Daily News has been hammering Trump since he announced his candidacy, yet he never bashes them like he does CNN, the NY Times and the Washington Post. Sure they’re a tabloid, but since when is Trump disciplined enough to avoid petty feuds? My favorite Daily News cover: [Clown Runs For Prez](http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2474203.1516197897!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_320/june-17-2015-clown-runs-prez.jpg) ---
**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:** [April 13, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19095 "2018-04-13T16:03:48Z")
It’s Comey’s life, and it’s obviously his right to pen memoirs about his encounters with Trump, but I kinda wish he hadn’t gone ahead with it. Fairly or not, he avails himself to criticism that he’s bent about being fired (who wouldn’t?). But more importantly, as a central figure in an ongoing investigation about the kind of president the people elected, he’s potentially playing a role in discrediting the very investigation he wants to see continued to the end. Trump survived Fire and Fury, and he will probably survive this book tour as well. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19096 "2018-04-13T16:09:37Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Trump survived Fire and Fury, and he will probably survive this book tour as well. Survived, but not unscathed. As we learned with Hillary, the constant pounding takes its toll, and if he isn’t gone by 2020, he will be so damaged that he will be unelectable, and he will take down anyone dumb enough to associate with him. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19097 "2018-04-13T16:11:23Z")
> [@j666](#): > > Damn, he’s openly selling indulgences now. It’s a way of saying to anyone who gets a subpoena, “if you refuse to testify against me, if you lie for me, I MIGHT MAYBE have your back”. Nothing more. But Trump’s word isn’t worth shit, so anyone who banks on it is a damn fool. As for Libby, he was just another crooked Republican scumbag. And a traitor, who helped to lie us into Cheney and Bush’s wars. Libby resigned in 2005 after a federal grand jury indicted him on five counts related to leaking the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who operated covertly in organizations under non-official cover (NOC), which can be extremely perilous. He was convicted on one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statement and sentenced to 30 months in prison. That part of the sentence was commuted by President George W. Bush. Libby was fined $250,000 and lost his license to practice law until he was reinstated in 2016. He had his right to vote restored in 2013. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19098 "2018-04-13T16:13:57Z")
But Hillary something! ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19099 "2018-04-13T16:15:34Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > If only the train wreck were stationary and at rest. If only we could leave it alone and know that when we come back to it, nothing will have changed or shifted or grown. > > Sadly, this is more of an erupting volcano. A chain of earthquakes. A series of tidal waves. Or maybe it’s one of those [fatbergs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatberg)that clogs up sewer systems. It does have to be watched and looked at and monitored. And commented on. > > I’d love nothing better than to feel I could go for a day without looking at the news. It is deliberate. Check me if I’m wrong, but I think it is called the “Gish Gallop”. The idea is to create and perpetuate chaos, which Trump has repeatedly calimed to enjoy. You keep so much shit coming and coming without let up, and keep changing your own statements and positions constantly. The end effect is to overwhelm anyone trying to keep up or make any sense of it. And it works. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19100 "2018-04-13T16:18:38Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > “Almost” says it all. Yup, sure does 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19101 "2018-04-13T16:55:31Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Meanwhile he apparently is warming up to the idea of the TPP, but one wonders why now? Partly as damage control for screwing over a portion of his base with the predictable results of his trade-war posturing; partly because he wants _something_ he can show off as a positive achievement to divert attention from the various dumpster fires. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19102 "2018-04-13T17:08:22Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Partly as damage control for screwing over a portion of his base with the predictable results of his trade-war posturing; partly because he wants _something_ he can show off as a positive achievement to divert attention from the various dumpster fires. … and yet, this TPP thing is a dumpster fire of his own making too. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19103 "2018-04-13T17:18:51Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > … and yet, this TPP thing is a dumpster fire of his own making too. yep - but he gets to claim he successfully renegotiated it. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/19104 "2018-04-13T17:23:15Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > What “over there”? _The Slavs are coming, The drums rum-tumming Everywhere So prepare Say a prayer Send the word, send the word To beware._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=954) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=956)