# The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 1)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Tags:** trump\
**Created:** [November 11, 2024, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068 "2024-11-11T06:19:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 101

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2001 "2025-02-14T23:54:54Z")

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> [@Smapti](#):
>
> WHO THE FUCK DOES CANADA NEED PROTECTION FROM YOU SENILE DUMBASS, HAS ANYONE EVEN EXPLAINED TO YOU THAT STATEHOOD FOR CANADA WOULD MEAN A PERMANENT DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY

When he says “state”, he means “occupied territory not allowed a voice in the government”.

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2002 "2025-02-15T02:49:03Z")

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> [@Smapti](#):
>
> Meanwhile, the Secretary of Defense says the Navy sucks and won’t be in fighting shape for at least 7 years.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this were to occur:

SecDef: The Navy will not be ready to fight for at least seven years.  
CNO: We’re ready to fight now.  
SecDef: I’m going to fix that.

Richard Jeni put it best: _They’re going to keep fixing it until it’s broke_.

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2003 "2025-02-15T02:50:10Z")

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> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> Seems like it ought to be up on a big billboard next to the Doomsday clock.

It _is_ the Doomsday clock. The admin just doesn’t know it.

> [@Smapti](#):
>
> Has anyone else noticed that all of Trump’s media ops lately have been taking place in the Oval Office with him seated the whole time?
> 
> I’m beginning to think he’s having more trouble standing up or walking around and his handlers are trying to hide it.

I’m wondering how much the taxpayers had to pay for his commode chair.

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2004 "2025-02-15T09:47:19Z")

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Here are two political cartoons which describe the admin very well.

[John Darkow](https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2025/02/195_392068.html)

[McGookin](https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2025/02/195_391878.html?utm_source=taboola)

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**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2005 "2025-02-15T09:52:35Z")

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Great examples, @Monty , and thanks for them.

Sadly, how long will it be before Darkow and McGookin will be shut down?

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**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2006 "2025-02-15T12:17:53Z")

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> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> When he says “state”, he means “occupied territory not allowed a voice in the government”.

A week ago I questioned the “51st State” thing on the basis that the Louisiana purchase didn’t become a gigantic state of Louisiana. Besides attaching Yukon to Alaska and saying PEI and BC needed new names, I left the other provinces be states of their own to make a nice round number of 62 states. It was pointed out that that would be basically be the end of any Republican majority in both houses.

Even giving the GOP Alberta, which I’ve heard compared to Texas a lot, to cancel out whatever renamed British Columbia adds, that’s still a net addition of 20 Dem senators and assuming proportional voting and some WAG of about 32 electoral votes, again somewhere around 26 more Dem congressman.

So were Canada to agree to this on those terms, Mitch and the boys would be over to the White House to ixnay that idea, yet they would agree this means Canada has taken Trumps threats to be some kind of wisdom, and are therefore amenable to just become added territory like the Marshall Islands. Nobody said anything about statehood, 51st or anything like that. Of course it would be egregious taxation without representation and wars have been fought over that.

But yeah, NORAD and NATO and Canada has an army too, so whatever “protection” Trump is threatening again sounds like some Mobster shake-down talk.

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**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2007 "2025-02-15T14:10:16Z")

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> [@Coriolanus](#):
>
> so whatever “protection” Trump is threatening again sounds like some Mobster shakedown talk

Especially since what you most need protection from is him.

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**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2008 "2025-02-15T15:32:48Z")

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I never understood why he had such a fixation on _all of Canada_ - which he should call “America’s Hat” like Homer Simpson, other than a way to get a much bigger slice of the Arctic resources.

In or or two NATO (and NORAD and sovereign statuses) disregarding military campaigns Greenland, then the Northwest Territories and Nunavut (and why not Yukon too) the USA would have at least 12+ slices (depending on Iceland’s claim) out of the 24. The combined population is less than 2 million and I’ve no idea what kind of health care they’d ever get (certainly not what Denmark and Canada are giving).

Of course in what I will (if he won’t) call the “America’s Hat Campaign” Trump could walk-back any mention of “state” which has to be represented (only so much a compliant SCOTUS can bend the Constitution); yet as a state, chatGPT tells me:

The State of Canada would be apportioned:

> 52 (House)+2 (Senate)=54 Electoral Votes

which would tie them with California.

In my almost-status-quo province-\>state conversion, it looks even worse (for the GOP)

> Canada’s **85 votes would significantly shift presidential elections**.  
> Ontario + Quebec alone (36 votes) **could decide elections** , much like Florida + Pennsylvania today.

So he really ought to STFU about anything Canada like he has with his Mar-A-Lago in Gaza plan. Yet now, when world opinion of the USA is at perhaps an all-time low, there is less downside to making the world angrier (Vance/Hegseth/Rubio, while not saying STFU to the NATO people, at least are carrying the “who asked you to speak?” message.)

Keir Stermer is saying things that triumvirate + Trump + Musk do not like. He still has (according to his schedule) the rest of the month to see Trump, bend the knee and present KCIII’s invite. Yet Putin is looking a lot more like Trump’s BFF as each day passes.

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**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2009 "2025-02-15T15:40:50Z")

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> [@Coriolanus](#):
>
> I never understood why he had such a fixation on

That describes a lot of his bizarre ravings. He goes on rants about windmills, electric batteries, sharks, Canada, Greenland, toilets, and a variety of topics, sometimes with some tenuous link to reality but more often clearly due to some private dysfunction of his mind.

It’s tempting to try to make rational sense of it. That’s what we do as human beings - try to impose order on an inherently chaotic world.

But trying to do so to his insane ramblings is unhealthy. That ways lies sanewashing and madness. He did not reason himself into his beliefs, therefore nobody is going to reason him out of them. At best, somebody might be able to convince him some course of action will work against his interests. Maybe. Until the next time he gets a bug up his ass about electric sharks swimming under ocean windmills.

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**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2010 "2025-02-15T16:59:22Z")

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Trump’s mugshot is on display in the White House. Apparently taped over Obama’s portrait.

Source:

> **[US President Donald Trump meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra...](https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-meets-with-indian-prime-minister-news-photo/2198733272)**
>
> US President Donald Trump meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 13, 2025.

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**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2011 "2025-02-15T18:01:43Z")

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It looks much better than Obama’s mugshot cover on the New York Post

Great that SoS Rubio is back SoS’ing along with Musk, and the Chief of Staff in the background.

Who showed the India-USA trade chart?

Trump: “Looks like a huge trade deficit here. India should buy more American, right?”  
Modi: “Oh yes, sir. We find the USA a very favourable trade partner. yes”  
Trump: “I know there is an ‘S’ in BRICS and I’ve got my main advisor here on that. Tell me, is there an ‘I’ in BRICS?”  
Modi: _thoughtful pause_ I have heard this term before, yet I assure you the I is not my country. We like the rupee… and the dollar as well"  
Not the real transcript which I’ve not heard

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**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:** [February 15, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2012 "2025-02-15T20:23:04Z")

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> [@Coriolanus](#):
>
> I never understood why he had such a fixation on _all of Canada_

He sees it on Mercator maps and thinks it’s yuuuuuge and full of prime real estate.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2013 "2025-02-15T20:25:59Z")

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I recently thought of this scene from _Flight of the Intruder_, where CDR Frank Camparelli (Danny Glover) is dressing down, first, LT Jake Grafton (Brad Johnson) and then LCDR Virgil Cole (Willem Dafoe):

> [@CDR Frank Camparelli](#):
>
> Face forward, mister. I’m just starting. Where do you get off, mister? Are you special? You’re just a sensitive fella here. I’d like to take you home to my mama.
> 
> And as for you, you can lead the Manson family now that Charlie’s in jail. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’re a maniac. They ought to study you, Cole.

I’d love to see someone dress down Trump like that.

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**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:** [February 15, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2014 "2025-02-15T20:53:03Z")

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Trump is speedrunning Napoleon now. Can we get to the “exiled in the south Atlantic” part?

[![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:s6j27rxb3ic2rxw73ixgqv2p/bafkreicjkblk6tlhi7ojs6brn6iakw2s5ztww2674tquk5ha2cqwcixvb4@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:s6j27rxb3ic2rxw73ixgqv2p/bafkreicjkblk6tlhi7ojs6brn6iakw2s5ztww2674tquk5ha2cqwcixvb4@jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2015 "2025-02-15T22:00:37Z")

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> [@Smapti](#):
>
> exiled in the south Atlantic

Or Nixon flashing the peace sign with both hands as he boards the helicopter (probably not called Marine One)…

> Frost: So, what in a sense you’re saying is that there are certain situations and the Huston  
> plan or that part of it was one of them where the president can decide that it’s in the best  
> interest of the nation or something and do something illegal.  
> Nixon: Well, when the president does it … that means that it is not illegal

Musk’s remarks over video to whatever convention is going on in Dubai had me wondering: Did he get some really good LSD, or did Putin kidnap and replace him or is he playing some kind of long game?

This has me speculating Putin has or will soon release some kompromat. Or MI-6. Everything else could be written off as “fake news” yet this sounds like (oh please, please, please) Trump will die in prison. Or on Elba.

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**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:** [February 15, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2016 "2025-02-15T23:16:44Z")

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> [@Smapti](#):
>
> Trump is speedrunning Napoleon now

Funny how dictators always interpret “saves his country” to mean “loots the country, does whatever he pleases, and faces no consequences.”

Of course most dictators who’ve quoted ol’ Boney have _not_ died in their beds. But maybe Donald will be one of the lucky ones.

In “changing the map” news, some may enjoy a bit of trolling of the Administration done by a venerable snack-maker:

[![](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Tos-l-MoonPie-01.jpg?w=768) ](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Tos-l-MoonPie-01.jpg?w=768)

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2017 "2025-02-15T23:23:18Z")

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> [@Sherrerd](#):
>
> Of course most dictators who’ve quoted ol’ Boney have _not_ died in their beds. But maybe Donald will be one of the lucky ones.

I just want him to have an unbelievably noisy and aromatic expulsion of his bowels on national TV, followed by a stroke. I don’t really care if he dies.

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2018 "2025-02-16T00:08:27Z")

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> [@Sherrerd](#):
>
> In “changing the map” news

Last Friday afternoon, rigiht before leaving work, I was speaking with one of the South African teachers. She was on a tear about Felon47 and she even mentioned the renaming of the Gulf. I cracked her up with this comment.

> You know it’s really Musk running the show, right? What he really meant to do was name that body of water _Gulf of Orania_.

And speaking of Musk, his bigotry and his being married to a brown person really don’t surprise me all that much. After all, hypocrisy is really the defining character trait of bigots. It also reminds me of a line from a play, _The Crucifer of Blood_. In the pay, the main character told his servant (this was in colonial India) “I hate fucking [Indians]\*”. The servant replied that he was quite impressed with that comment since the servant often brought Indian women to the main character’s quarters at night. Said the servant, “You hate fucking [Indians] except, oddly enough, when you are fucking [Indians].”

\*I replaced the actual word used with the word in brackets.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [February 16, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2019 "2025-02-16T01:08:24Z")

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> [@Monty](#):
>
> And speaking of Musk, his bigotry and his being married to a brown person really don’t surprise me all that much.

Musk isn’t married to any person these days.

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**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2020 "2025-02-16T02:08:26Z")

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I mean, have you seen all of that undeveloped coastline?

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