# 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:** 239
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2025, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4822 "2025-05-14T08:48:22Z")
No, while the Republican strategy is to wreck things and then blame the Democrats, the current Democratic strategy, it seems to me, is in line with Sun Tzu’s maxim as popularized by Napoleon: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Of course, the Democratic leaders are forgetting that the Republican’s mistakes hurt them too, perhaps irrevocably. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2025, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4823 "2025-05-14T08:55:17Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > This “win at any cost” mentality you claim is coming from the major Democratic players is not something I am seeing, so some evidence would be nice. I don’t have any proof. I was merely offering a hypothesis, in response to this question from @Just_Asking_Questions: > Why aren’t they doing something about our fascist government? Because they want it, too? I don’t know. > > I fear we are all pawns in some game that we don’t even know is being played. ---
**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 14, 2025, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4824 "2025-05-14T08:58:49Z")
I don’t there’s a _strategy,_ just normal Democratic passivity and timidity. The Democrats have been the punching bags of the Republicans for decades by now. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2025, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4825 "2025-05-14T09:21:48Z")
Interesting hypothesis…if there was any evidence behind it (not proof, just evidence). ---
**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:** [May 14, 2025, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4826 "2025-05-14T11:03:59Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The Democrats think the worse things are under Trump, the better their chances are in 2028, so why hinder him? He’ll screw over the country, and they’ll sweep the House and Senate. That’s the plan, at least. I have never heard this. You are the first to bring it to my attention. ---
**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 14, 2025, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4827 "2025-05-14T11:34:07Z")
IDK, for me, when something is evident, it needs no more proof. Evident literally means you can see (vedere) that it is so. That is a very high bar. And concerning **Alessan** ’s hypothesis: I am sure some idiot in the Democratic Party has argued in this sense. Not the majority, I hope, but some fool, probably high on coke? Sure. ---
**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 14, 2025, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4828 "2025-05-14T11:46:21Z")
It’s the sort of thing I hear from far left accelerationists, not Democrats. The sort of people who think the world needs to collapse so they can build their Eternal Glorious Socialist Utopia on the ashes (and that they’ll somehow be the survivors). The Democrats are nowhere near fanatical enough for that kind of self-immolating strategy. The flaws of the Democrats are all related to how unfocused, passive and directionless they are; for decades they’ve flinched at so much as calling the Republicans names like “weird”. The idea of them having some grand and ruthless strategy is just totally unlike them. Or really, _any_ strategy. They _drift,_ they don’t _plan._ They move with the current and flinch whenever a Republican scowls at them. ---
**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 14, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4829 "2025-05-14T13:19:02Z")
It has become problematic, that the Democrats, the one source of opposition we have, has an deeply low approval rating, in part because people like us are pissed at them for being so ineffective. Where do we go from here? ---
**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 14, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4830 "2025-05-14T13:37:40Z")
However, for your convenience, a site called [Public Square](https://www.publicsquare.com/) serves as the MAGAt yellow-pages. If you want to know where to not spend your money, here you have it (though that would run counter to their aim, so do not use that site for avoiding evil businesses, because that would be wrong). ---
**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 14, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4831 "2025-05-14T13:55:01Z")
It’s part of what I was alluding to. People compare our government to parliamentary systems sometimes. And in that sort of system, there are often cases where no single party gets an outright majority and must form a coalition. This occurs after the election. In the US, we do that before the election, but we don’t recognize that. The Democratic Party is more or less a coalition of several sub-parties, which we typically call ‘wings’. And they’re rarely in lockstep on anything. This was true of the Republicans at one point as well a few decades ago, but essentially one ‘wing’ has come to dominate the rest. It’s reflected in what happened after the Civil Rights Act. The Southern Democrat “wing” basically decided to caucus with the Republicans instead. We call that switching parties but basically, it was essentially what would be a realignment of party coalitions elsewhere. But since we don’t recognize that, we treat the Democrats as some monolithic bloc and expect them to act that way. And continue to be disappointed when they don’t. Worse, we each have different ideas, corresponding to the particular ‘wing’ we most closely associate with, on what the party as a whole should do and how individual members should act, as if there were some obvious way that such a clear course of action actually exists for a coalition of groups with diverse (and sometimes mutually contradictory) interests and goals. Is there a clear way out of this? Nope. That is, unless the average American voter gets a lot better informed and interested in policy, which seems the least realistic option of all. Otherwise, we have the current situation where we try to muddle through. ---
**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 14, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4832 "2025-05-14T15:41:41Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > IDK, for me, when something is evident, it needs no more proof. “Intuitively obvious to the most casual observer”? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4833 "2025-05-14T18:00:50Z")
Nobody near me that would be likely to get my money anyway, but I thought it was interesting that a Baptist church was listed. ---
**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 15, 2025, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4834 "2025-05-15T11:15:21Z")
Disaster relief checks from FEMA are bouncing. > **[Florida couple raise concerns, questions after $30,000 FEMA flood insurance...](https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-couple-raise-concerns-questions-102500876.html)** > > Sent a check that’s made of rubber? Follow up nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4835 "2025-05-15T11:19:23Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Disaster relief checks from FEMA are bouncing. How are they gonna blame that on Biden? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4836 "2025-05-15T11:22:08Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > > > Disaster relief checks from FEMA are bouncing. > > How are they gonna blame that on Biden? - When there’s a will, there’s a way. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4837 "2025-05-15T13:34:20Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > How are they gonna blame that on Biden? By saying it’s Biden’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4838 "2025-05-15T13:35:26Z")
well, duh. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4839 "2025-05-15T14:04:04Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > > Trump has been claiming, all along, that undocumented immigrants represent an “invasion,” > > Oh. I thought he said he closed the border. Hard to know what to believe these days. Except for the part about “_ **carefully constructed** _ lies”, this passage could have been written as an opinion piece today. > “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself – that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink.” > ― George Orwell, 1984 ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4840 "2025-05-16T01:02:28Z")
I will admit that I don’t know if this is a “clusterfuck” or not, but it certainly seems like a bad idea to buy a very expensive jet at the same time that tariffs will make things more expensive and the President is getting criticism for a big expensive jet. Or perhaps it’s business as usual. > **[Homeland Security eyes new $50M jet for Noem, Coast Guard officials](https://www.armytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/05/15/homeland-security-eyes-new-50m-jet-for-noem-coast-guard-officials/)** > > The request for a new jet comes as President Donald Trump considers accepting a luxury Boeing jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/4841 "2025-05-16T01:36:31Z")
This woman is deranged. > **[Noem Plots Reality Show Where Migrants Fight for Citizenship](https://www.thedailybeast.com/kristi-noem-wants-migrants-to-compete-for-citizenship-on-hunger-games-style-reality-show/)** > > A Homeland Security official told the Daily Beast that the show is in the early stages of vetting, though approval has not been given—or denied. What’s next, shoot each other for our entertainment? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=238) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=240)