# The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 1) **URL:** \ **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:** 107
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2121 "2025-02-19T07:29:11Z")
> [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > When your kids are dying fighting Russian troops in Milan in five years lol. I don’t know if soldiers paid in DOGE coins can afford to go to Milan. We’ll (the rest of NATO) will stop them a couple hundred miles east of Kiev. Thank you very much. We (Europe) will have a lot less trouble finding volunteers for our armies when the soldiers know they won’t be working with objectively evil mofo’s. NATO will fucking thrive without the US. You worry about your own failed state. Let’s see you survive the bird flu before you start to worry about us. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2122 "2025-02-19T14:27:38Z")
Re SCOTUS growing a backbone and coming out against Trump and his power grab: remember, they decided that bribery was perfectly legal as long as you don’t call it that. And we know that Thomas and Alito, at least, have availed themselves of such “gifts”. My expectation is that Musk et al will offer “gifts” behind closed doors to the conservative justices to make it worth their whiles to sign off on this insanity and let the Executive branch usurp their purview. Justices serving after them (if any) can suck eggs. And Roberts will be perfectly fine with that. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2123 "2025-02-19T14:28:27Z")
> [@Ellecram](#): > > > [@Monty](#): > > > > [Guess what the Secretary of Health and Human Services has as his priority?](https://www.yahoo.com/news/rfk-jr-names-first-targets-221920703.html) (The link goes to _Yahoo_.) > > > > > Kennedy [made a speech](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk-jr-tells-staff-investigate-childhood-vaccine-schedule/story?id=118931875) to HHS staff at the Washington, D.C., headquarters Tuesday and announced that he planned to begin investigations into whether anti-depressant medications and the childhood vaccine schedule are responsible for chronic diseases in the United States. > > > > So official United States government policy on health is a cross between Scientology and Antivax. > > Anti-depressants? Dear gawd we are so screwed. > > I just can’t believe this is happening for real. Yeah - this bullshit has got me scared for real. I remember what it was like before I began taking meds. I am in serious doubt in my ability to survive if they are taken away. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2124 "2025-02-19T14:31:51Z")
> [@natureboy](#): > > … Unitarian Executive \> Judicial + Legislative? They’re corrupt as all fuck but they’re not dumb. They know the implications of what they’d be deciding. Their impulse would be to protect their branch and their power to say what the law is under the Constitution, a tradition that goes back to Marbury v Madison (and arguably before then). … Another factor (which might penetrate even Thomas and Alito’s thick skulls) is that were SCOTUS render itself moot by endorsing the Orange Peril’s arguments, the spigot of lovely, lovely grift is likely to close. Not all of the proto-oligarchs are dumb enough to keep shoveling gifts at people who can’t do them any commensurate service. Which doesn’t mean I have any great expectation that the Federalist Society lapdogs won’t roll over and play dead, but it’s at least a slight possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2125 "2025-02-19T14:40:31Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Which is a bit curious because while Australia does export $10bill of aluminium globally, the US destined component is only about 100mil, which is a rounding error in the US aluminium market worth 70bil. More and more, I’m starting to think that Trump just can’t do even basic math. Back when he was whining about NAFTA and demanding a renegotiation, one of his big complaints was that we didn’t grant him enough access to the Canadian dairy market. Which is worth about $10 billion/year. He was willing to blow up a trade deal worth almost $1 trillion a year over getting a few more percentage points of a vastly smaller industry. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2126 "2025-02-19T14:47:06Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > My expectation is that Musk et al will offer “gifts” behind closed doors to the conservative justices to make it worth their whiles to sign off on this insanity and let the Executive branch usurp their purview. _The Lord of the Rings_ was apparently [Musk’s favorite book](https://recommentions.com/elon-musk/books/lord-of-the-rings-by-j-r-r-tolkien/). Maybe he should change his name to Annatar: To seduce the Elves into his service, [Sauron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauron) assumed a fair appearance as _Annatar_ , “Lord of Gifts”[[T 13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauron#cite_note-Of_the_Rings_of_Power-15) and befriended [Celebrimbor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrimbor)’s Elven-smiths of [Eregion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eregion). He taught them arts and magic, helping them to forge the [Rings of Power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Power). ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2127 "2025-02-19T15:24:38Z")
> [@Ellecram](#): > > I just can’t believe this is happening for real. It gets worse: Full Title: **White House posts video of immigrants in shackles, calls deportation footage ‘ASMR’** > **[White House posts video of immigrants in shackles, calls deportation footage...](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/18/white-house-x-immigrants-deportation-shackles-asmr-video.html)** > > President Donald Trump has made the crackdown on undocumented immigrants living in the United States a priority for his second term in the White House. > The [White House](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) on Tuesday afternoon posted a video online showing [immigrants](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/14/trump-immigration-eric-adams-doj-danielle-sassoon.html) in shackles being prepared to board a [deportation](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/11/trumps-mass-deportation-plan-could-have-a-big-effect-on-inflation.html) flight from Seattle. > > The video includes footage of a set of handcuffs and chains jingling as they are pulled from a basket containing other shackles and then laid out on the airport tarmac next to four other sets of restraints. > > The X post by the White House is titled, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2128 "2025-02-19T15:29:07Z")
Antisocial Sociopathic Morons in Red hats Yeah. NOW, I get it. ETA: lest there be any lingering doubt that the cruelty _is_ the point… ---
**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 19, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2129 "2025-02-19T15:59:37Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Did anyone have that on their Bingo card? Even if it wasn’t RFK jr, I’m not surprised. The “antivaxx” crowd is almost entirely GOP crackpots. Keep from interfering with Big Pharma if they make donations (probably to both parties but nail them if they didn’t send enough tribute to Trump). Then spend lots of money to conclude (or skip any research and just conclude) that COVID was the “China Virus”. Are we certain that internal use of bleach and UV light (?) have no place in treatment of viruses? How about intravenous Listerine? And just because the FDA once said “You are not a horse. Stop taking Ivermectin” how can I really believe either assertion? And the maxim is “If it’s something good, credit Trump. If it’s bad, blame Biden, Obama and China all at once” ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2130 "2025-02-19T17:45:24Z")
Right now in West Texas there’s a big Measle’s outbreak. It started in a small town called Seminole (I used to know a girl that went to High School there and she’d call it See My Hole) which is a very republican city along with the rest of West Texas. As they say, reality has a left leaning bias and here we see what happens when people jump on the anti vaccine band wagon. You will get sick. That’s not Joe Biden’s fault, but I noticed the anti vaccine rhetoric amongst Republicans skyrocketed with Trump’s Covid denial claims and false information regarding ineffective treatments. I don’t expect them to assign blame where it belongs of course. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2131 "2025-02-19T17:54:05Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > Re SCOTUS growing a backbone and coming out against Trump and his power grab: remember, they decided that bribery was perfectly legal as long as you don’t call it that. Yup, it’s a ‘gratuity’. No, no, no, not that dirty word bribe. But just get it over assholes and call it what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2132 "2025-02-19T22:06:38Z")
He isn’t kidding. > **[Official White House X account posts image of 'king' Trump wearing crown](https://www.rawstory.com/white-house-trump-king/)** > > The White House's official social media account on the X platform posted an image of President Donald Trump wearing a crown and referred to him as "king."The Wednesday social media post came after Trump shared a message on Truth Social, in which he... ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2133 "2025-02-19T22:15:22Z")
Another plane crash. > **[2 dead after 2 small planes collide midair in Arizona, officials say | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/us/arizona-plane-crash-marana/index.html)** > > At least two people are dead after two small aircraft collided in midair at an Arizona airport Wednesday, authorities said. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2134 "2025-02-19T22:21:52Z")
It’s getting weird how many plane accidents have happened since Trump took office but I am hard pressed to think how this is his fault. Make no mistake, I’d love to blame this on Trump but I don’t think I can. Is there reason to think Trump messed with this system and indirectly caused this mess? Or is it Biden and the problems have arrived? Or just dumb, bad luck? ---
**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 19, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2135 "2025-02-19T22:37:19Z")
Probably a bit of column A and a bit of column C. There’s probably quite a bit of bad luck involved. Maybe most of it, at least for now. But also, if you see the largely non-political heads in your department start to go almost immediately once there’s a new President, and you’re already understaffed, overworked, and overstressed, the writing is on the wall and both morale and concentration can’t be that great. Even if there aren’t that many air traffic controllers let go immediately, I can’t see them staying particularly focused on the job knowing there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Especially with Musk posting stuff about how SpaceX engineers will techno-magically replace them. These are smart folks - they know by now their jobs aren’t secure, no matter if there’s no way SpaceX can be trusted to replace them or that air traffic safety is effectively non-existent without them. We’ve needed more ATCs for years, so it becomes a question of when, not if, more things break. ETA: for what it’s worth, this latest incident was at a field without an ATC tower, so that one, at least, can probably be chalked up to bad luck. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2136 "2025-02-19T22:40:21Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > It’s getting weird how many plane accidents have happened since Trump took office but I am hard pressed to think how this is his fault. I agree, but sure won’t hesitate to hang it on him! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2137 "2025-02-19T22:48:24Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Make no mistake, I’d love to blame this on Trump but I don’t think I can. It really just feels like you aren’t trying hard enough 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2138 "2025-02-19T22:50:37Z")
> ETA: for what it’s worth, this latest incident was at a field without an ATC tower, so that one, at least, can probably be chalked up to bad luck. Small plane crashes aren’t all that rare. Usually they just make local news. It’s only because public is more focused on air safety that these stories get picked up on national news. It’s confirmation bias. I don’t think Trump is to blame yet, but his cuts are dangerous and foolish. There will be crashes that we’ll be able to link directly to Trumps actions and decisions. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2139 "2025-02-19T23:12:40Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Make no mistake, I’d love to blame this on Trump but I don’t think I can. You can be certain that if a Dem was in the White House, the Pubs would be quick to blame the president. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2025, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2140 "2025-02-19T23:58:01Z")
The Dem doesn’t even have to be currently **in** the White House for it to be his fault. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=106) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=108)