# 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:** 17
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/321 "2024-11-21T02:13:44Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Trump looking at naming right-wing radio host Dan Bongino to head the Secret Service I literally have no idea how to react to this. This has to be him trolling us. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/322 "2024-11-21T02:16:22Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I literally have no idea how to react to this. This has to be him trolling us. He’s an idiot, there’s nothing he’s too stupid to do. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/323 "2024-11-21T03:06:43Z")
Wasn’t Bongino one of the secret service guys for Obama? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/324 "2024-11-21T03:16:32Z")
Yes, from 1999 to 2011 he was a Secret Service agent, so he would have served during part of the Obama administration (and a tiny bit of the Clinton administration). He didn’t serve in protective duty until 2006, but he served until he left so he would have probably been involved in protecting Obama. Compared to many of the other bozos being named, he seems qualified in comparison. (That’s an **extremely** low bar though.) ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/325 "2024-11-21T03:21:03Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Compared to many of the other bozos being named, he seems qualified in comparison. (That’s an **extremely** low bar though.) Friend, Square from Flatland couldn’t make it if that bar were being used for Limbo. That’s how low that bar is. In other news, [the co-president and Ramaswamy have announced their methodology.](https://us.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-outline-231614768.html) (The link goes to Yahoo.) > Tech entrepreneurs [Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy](https://us.yahoo.com/news/trump-taps-elon-musk-vivek-010754097.html) outlined a plan Wednesday for [President-elect Donald Trump](https://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/donald-trump/) to oversee a massive reduction in the federal workforce, arguing the employees won’t be needed after Trump eliminates “thousands of regulations” in his next administration. > > Musk and Ramaswamy, who Trump last week named [co-heads of a new Department of Government Efficiency](https://us.yahoo.com/news/trump-taps-elon-musk-vivek-010754097.html), singled out [in a Wall Street Journal op-ed](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/musk-and-ramaswamy-the-doge-plan-to-reform-government-supreme-court-guidance-end-executive-power-grab-fa51c020?mod=hp_opin_pos_0) federal employees “who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.” One interesting bit in that article is this: > They also floated the possibility of requiring these workers to return to in-person work five days a week, predicting it “would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome.” > > “If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” they said. So someone who’s actually doing their job will be fired for what, doing their job? And privilege? That’s not exactly what I would have called _following guidelines to not die from a deadly disease Trump pretended did not exist_. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/326 "2024-11-21T03:48:25Z")
We are definitely in kakistocracy territory now. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/327 "2024-11-21T04:11:31Z")
You mean we’re in it again. This is Round Two. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/328 "2024-11-21T04:58:18Z")
Oh yes Round Two for sure. I just learned the word and felt the need to put it out here. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/329 "2024-11-21T05:34:09Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > So someone who’s actually doing their job will be fired for what, doing their job? The most stupid thing about that plan is that it’s a return to office mandate as a culling without any regard to whether doing so is efficient or not. Who cares what job they had. I thought efficiency was the top priority? It’s in the name. That op-ed is full of scary shit. > [@](#): > > Critics claim that we can’t meaningfully close the federal deficit without taking aim at entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which require Congress to shrink. But this deflects attention from the sheer magnitude of waste, fraud and abuse that nearly all taxpayers wish to end—and that DOGE aims to address by identifying pinpoint executive actions that would result in immediate savings for taxpayers. Nice misdirect there. They didn’t say they _wouldn’t_ cut them. > [@](#): > > With a decisive electoral mandate and a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government. We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington. We expect to prevail. They mention the Supreme Court a lot in this piece. Almost like they are partners or something. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/330 "2024-11-21T08:03:31Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > Never interrupt your enemy when he’s doing dumb shit. …even if the dumb shit he’s doing is repeatedly kicking me in the balls? ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/331 "2024-11-21T08:05:30Z")
When the enemy is hurting you, by all means interrupt him. “Dumb shit” was meant to mean stuff that hurt _him_ (and left you indifferent). ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/332 "2024-11-21T08:14:48Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The reason I asked this way back yonder is that I don’t think trump actually HAS to carry out the deportations. All he has to do is keep the **threat** of doing it alive in the headlines and discussions (like here) and promise that he will do it. And then from time to time he can say he is in the process of rounding up and deporting people and add a few pictures/videos of brown-skinned people in chain-link enclosures guarded by uniforms. Then eventually he will declare the project halfway done (“It will be wrapped up in two weeks!”) and publish made-up statistics to back him up. But the project will never be completely done because it’s the **threat** that keeps the subject alive and the libs in a sweat. > > Handling the “deportations” this way will be a helluva lot cheaper than actually doing it Too bad Stanley Kubrick is no longer with us. He did such a great job faking the moon landings that faking mass deportations would have been a snap. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/333 "2024-11-21T08:53:46Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The reason I asked this way back yonder is that I don’t think trump actually HAS to carry out the deportations. All he has to do is keep the **threat** of doing it alive in the headlines and discussions (like here) and promise that he will do it. And now we have [a Texas government official offering land to Trump for “deportation facilities”](https://www.aol.com/texas-land-commissioner-offers-1-163011901.html). (The link goes to AOL.) > Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is offering the incoming Trump administration 1,402 acres the state purchased along the Texas-Mexico border to be used in a mass deportation operation. > > In a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, Buckingham said she’s offering the land “to be used to construct deportation facilities.” > > The Texas General Land Office purchased the plot of land from a farmer in October to facilitate Texas’ efforts to build a wall. > > “My office is fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history,” Buckingham [wrote in the letter](https://www.glo.texas.gov/the-glo/news/press-releases/2024/files/11-19-24_trump-donald-starr-county-offer.pdf), dated Tuesday. Yeah, that’s the ticket. And what’s the plan when no country agrees to accept the deportees? ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/334 "2024-11-21T09:13:55Z")
What’s the over/under on Jon McNaughton being tapped to head up the National Endowment for the Arts (I mean until Elmo shitcans the whole thing)? ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/335 "2024-11-21T09:47:52Z")
Ah, Jon McNaughton. He’s been looking for a Trump appointment for years. Else why would we get art like this: [![](https://cdn10.bigcommerce.com/s-dcvfa4/product_images/uploaded_images/fight-fight-fight-final-sm.jpg) ](https://cdn10.bigcommerce.com/s-dcvfa4/product_images/uploaded_images/fight-fight-fight-final-sm.jpg) And many others, including Donald and Melania Trump on a motorcycle, for some weird reason. Jon, stick to landscapes. You can do those well. Leave the political crap alone. ---
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/336 "2024-11-21T12:12:20Z")
That painting is Trump standing in triumph after “successfully” ripping open a ketchup packet with his teeth. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/337 "2024-11-21T12:38:57Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > > They also floated the possibility of requiring these workers to return to in-person work five days a week, predicting it “would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome.” And this will be a double-whammy to the effectiveness of the public service. Those most likely to say fuck it and quit will be those who think they’ve got a good shot at getting jobs in the private sector. That is, the best employees. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/338 "2024-11-21T12:41:44Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Yeah, that’s the ticket. And what’s the plan when no country agrees to accept the deportees? Well, they’ve got a huge facility right on the border, with lots of untapped labor. Start digging tunnels! ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/339 "2024-11-21T13:00:26Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Yeah, that’s the ticket. And what’s the plan when no country agrees to accept the deportees? I fear/suspect the intention is to invoke the phrase “involuntary labor” which would also help with farmers complaining about the lack of workers. Lest we forget labor camps and slaves were a feature of the Nazi Germany they seem to admire so heavily. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/340 "2024-11-21T13:20:50Z")
It’s as if some of you have _no idea whatsoever_ that work makes free. Hmph. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=18)