# 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:** 233
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4702 "2025-05-10T21:53:55Z")
By the mushroom. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4703 "2025-05-10T21:57:33Z")
If that was attempted, wouldn’t all Trump’s weight cause the cap to snap off? ---
**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:** [May 10, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4704 "2025-05-10T22:15:10Z")
No, it would just become as long as he wishes it were. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2025, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4705 "2025-05-10T22:17:15Z")
Especially since the cease-fire was [broken](https://www.nbcnews.com/world/india/india-pakistan-reach-ceasefire-deal-us-trump-rubio-rcna206010) a few hours later. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4706 "2025-05-10T22:39:37Z")
Wow. Obama and Biden sure have some reach! You know that’s whom he’s going to blame. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4707 "2025-05-10T22:40:14Z")
You can almost smell the desperation. The UK “deal” was a nothingberder. Not even “finalized” and what little was announced is better for the UK than the US. Worse, the “big announcement” was overshadowed by the news from the Vatican, announcing a pope who clearly does not approve of any of them. And now desperately trying to take any credit at all for any improvement in relations between India and Pakistan. The flailing is absolutely pathetic ---
**Author:** ![BayLeaves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@BayLeaves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayLeaves)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4708 "2025-05-10T22:42:11Z")
I want Trump to fail. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4709 "2025-05-10T23:12:37Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > You can almost smell the desperation. > > The UK “deal” was a nothingberder. Not even “finalized” and what little was announced is better for the UK than the US. Worse, the “big announcement” was overshadowed by the news from the Vatican, announcing a pope who clearly does not approve of any of them. > > And now desperately trying to take any credit at all for any improvement in relations between India and Pakistan. > > The flailing is absolutely pathetic Also, I think part of it is due to how Trump and company consistently fail to _attribute agency_ to anyone outside themselves - a tactic that falls on its face when applied to foreign nations that feel no obligation to play along with their fantasies. Just as Trump and his minions assumed the rest of the world would instantly cave in to all his demands, they also acted on the assumption that India and Pakistan would play along with his attempt to broker a ceasefire. Despite doing everything he could to reduce the amount of international political leverage the US has to zero. His demand that Stockholm “Ban DEI” being another example; the idea that a city in a foreign nation might not feel obligated to follow his orders escapes him. It’s a consistent pattern of acting with the assumption that everyone else would just roll over for him like they have no will of their own. An assumption that has worked pretty well here in the US for some bizarre reason, but the rest of the world lacks that particular pathology. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4710 "2025-05-10T23:21:51Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Just as Trump and his minions assumed the rest of the world would instantly cave in to all his demands, they also acted on the assumption that India and Pakistan would play along with his attempt to broker a ceasefire. It also would be consistent with Trump’s ego, to believe that somehow “only I can fix” applies in a conflict which goes back nearly 80 years. Believing that he, as a “very stable genius,” could solve a dispute which has confounded three generations of diplomats and world leaders, is so very on brand for him. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4711 "2025-05-10T23:28:36Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Wow. Obama and Biden sure have some reach! You know that’s whom he’s going to blame. It _is_ Joe the President’s fault. He did not do nearly enough to prevent ShitShow II. > [@BayLeaves](#): > > I want Trump to fail. Work on your phrasing. That is too close to “I want the guy driving the car that I am riding in to lose control of it.” ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4712 "2025-05-10T23:33:18Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > In what sense of “suspend”? Suspend his animation…? ---
**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:** [May 10, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4713 "2025-05-10T23:39:47Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Work on your phrasing. That is too close to “I want the guy driving the car that I am riding in to lose control of it.” Considering that he’s driving towards a cliff over a volcano… ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4714 "2025-05-11T01:16:08Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Believing that he, as a “very stable genius,” could solve a dispute which has confounded three generations of diplomats and world leaders, is so very on brand for him. Yes it is, and it goes back decades. I was reminded of this article I once read: [How Trump was going to end the Cold War in the 1980s](https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/02/politics/donald-trump-cold-war/index.html) > Dr. Bernard Lown didn’t even know who Donald Trump was when he first heard the name in 1986. > > Just the previous year, Lown – an accomplished cardiologist – had accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of a group he co-founded to bring physicians together to prevent nuclear war. > > The next year, Lown was working to fund a cardiovascular institute. When a member of its executive board said that a wealthy New York real estate developer named Trump wanted to meet him, Lown jumped at the chance. > > That meeting in the spring of 1986, though, didn’t go exactly as expected, as Lown [first described](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-angled-soviet-posting-1980s-says-nobel-prize-winner-1006312) to The Hollywood Reporter. > > Lown arrived at Trump Tower, he told CNN and “There (Trump) was in all of his pretentious glamour.” > > But before Lown could ask Trump for a donation, Trump had an unexpected question of his own, Lown said: “I understand you know about Gorbachev.” > > And, in fact, Lown did. After winning the Nobel Peace Prize, he and the Russian co-founder of his group, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, had been invited to meet with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. > … > Because, Lown recalls Trump saying, “I’m going to call Ronnie and ask him to make me ambassador plenipotentiary to Moscow.” It took Lown a minute to realize that by Ronnie, Trump meant President Ronald Reagan. > > Trump’s plan, Lown says today, was to personally negotiate a nuclear arms deal and – in the process – do nothing less than end the Cold War. > > “It’ll take one hour of discussion before the Cold War is over,” Lown said Trump told him. > > Lown told Trump that in his opinion, Gorbachev might be ready to make a deal and that he also found the Soviet leader intelligent and knowledgeable. It was not the same impression he formed of Trump. > > “I thought he was inattentive and self-concentrated. I thought what he said was idiocy. He didn’t understand the complexity of the issues.” > … > Trump’s interest in nuclear negotiation goes back as least as far as 1984 when [he told The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/11/15/donald-trump-holding-all-the-cards-the-tower-the-team-the-money-the-future/8be79254-7793-4812-a153-f2b88e81fa54/?utm_term=.28de087c4019) “it would take an hour-and-a-half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles. … I think I know most of it anyway.” ---
**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:** [May 11, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4715 "2025-05-11T01:36:19Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > > “I thought he was inattentive and self-concentrated. I thought what he said was idiocy. He didn’t understand the complexity of the issues.” Check, check, and check. ✔ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4716 "2025-05-11T01:42:23Z")
He persists in thinking that the way things happen is you tell someone to do it and then it gets done. He can’t seem to get out of that mode. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4717 "2025-05-11T02:54:11Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Oh. I thought he said he closed the border. I assume he takes a similar approach to this issue as he does with the economy: when bad things happen, it’s Biden’s fault. When good things happen, it’s because of Trump and Trump only. ---
**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:** [May 11, 2025, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4718 "2025-05-11T03:07:09Z")
He literally said that on Thursday. Almost word for word. ---
**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:** [May 11, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4719 "2025-05-11T14:16:04Z")
The administration has considered the legal and ethical implications of this and [wait for it] determined that it’s perfectly okay: > **[Trump administration poised to accept 'palace in the sky' as a gift for Trump...](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-poised-accept-palace-sky-gift-trump/story?id=121680511)** > > President Trump poised to accept "palace in the sky" as a gift from Qatar: Sources > In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar – a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News. _“Dear Internal Revenue Service. I have taken your position into consideration, and after conducting a thorough audit of my own account, have inarguably concluded that I do not owe you any money. Thanks for thinking of me, regardless.”_ ---
**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:** [May 11, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4720 "2025-05-11T14:29:09Z")
They better scour that thing for bugs ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4721 "2025-05-11T14:39:35Z")
From the article you linked to: > The president has expressed deep frustration with the delays, tasking Elon Musk to work with Boeing and the Air Force to speed up the process. Those efforts have been modestly successful. Boeing’s most recent estimated delivery date is now 2027, but Trump has made it clear he wants a new plane this year. So he is accepting a 13 year old gold plated lemon. > Trump toured the plane, which is so opulently configured it is known as “a flying palace,” while it was parked at the West Palm Beach International Airport in February. It’s all in a day’s work for the president of the United Banana Republics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=232) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=234)