# 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:** 369
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7422 "2025-08-18T10:47:57Z")
I’d think he’ll have more to say after this thing today which is already looking bad - with trump pre-badgering Zelensky over Crimea and NATO. “Obama-given Crimea” - why not blame Clinton, Major and Putin for ignorning their non-agression treaty towards Ukraine in 1994 (in exchange for giving up their nukes). [ETA: Well okay, blame Obama and Cameron but mostly Putin] In my understanding, a drunken Khrushchev (born near Ukraine) “gifted” Crimea from the USSR to the SSR (? - whatever Ukraine was in) long before I was alive to not care (and sure it didnt’t make the front page of the NYT). I suppose at times Zelensky has called for restoration of pre-2014 borders yet not lately. And this “Article 5-like” thing is meaningless from a President who has stated that Article 5 only counts for those countries on the North Atlantic with Germany being close enough. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7423 "2025-08-18T11:42:14Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > And this “Article 5-like” thing is meaningless from a President who has stated that Article 5 only counts for those countries on the North Atlantic with Germany being close enough. And I personally doubt our particular felon-in-chief will deign to support any of our NATO allies if they haven’t prepaid the amount of money he thinks they should have. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7424 "2025-08-18T12:10:29Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > if they haven’t prepaid the amount of money he thinks they should have Think? I imagine deep sea tube worms think more than Trump. I guess he has vindictive memory, but no processing power to determine who or what marine organism is to blame for his discomfort. At least his flunky admitted to a brain worm. Trump is blithely ignorant in a way more typical of lower order invertebrates. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7425 "2025-08-18T12:16:34Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > At least his flunky admitted to a brain worm. Maybe the Brain Worms got into Trump too like in that episode of Star Trek? ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7426 "2025-08-18T12:37:49Z")
The “Budapest Memorandum” that had all the former Soviet republics give up their nukes - if you couldn’t guess by its name - is not a treaty or in any way a legal document. A promise, an assurance. And it was Yeltsin who signed it for Russia so Putin and Lavrov don’t care anyway. At the time, Ukraine had the 3rd largest nuclear stockpile in the world. So once you have nukes, do not bargain them away. And if you don’t (Iran) keep trying to make them Even the “real” Article Five has language like “t_aking such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force."_ And in the USA at least, any such action is still subject to the War Powers Act. So the President can do nothing, do something for 90 days and if Congress doesn’t agree it’s over. So “Article Five Like” is so much saccharine. If it really meant “NATO countries will beat up Russia if they bully you again” Putin wouldn’t be for it. It’s more like Putin will be asked nicely to report to the Principal’s office. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7427 "2025-08-18T13:01:13Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > “We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remain some big areas of disagreement,” Rubio told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. Great way of saying that absolutely nothing was accomplished, Marco. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7428 "2025-08-18T13:05:42Z")
"We made two weeks in the sense that we identified two weeks of two weeks, but there remain some bigly two weeks,” Rubio told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7429 "2025-08-18T13:20:36Z")
“we identified concepts of a plan for potential areas of agreement” ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7430 "2025-08-18T13:25:37Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Great way of saying that absolutely nothing was accomplished, Marco. Piffle. He’s got nothing on Sir Humphrey for saying nothing! **Hacker:** When you give your evidence to the Think Tank, are you going to support my view that the civil service is overmanned and feather-bedded, or not? Yes or no? Straight answer. **Sir Humphrey:** Well Minister, if you ask me for a straight answer, then I shall say that, as far as we can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another in terms of the average of departments, then in the final analysis it is probably true to say, that at the end of the day, in general terms, you would probably find that, not to put too fine a point on it, there probably wasn’t very much in it one way or the other… As far as one can see, at this stage. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7431 "2025-08-18T13:33:27Z")
Or as Joan Manuel Serrat put it " [they] publicly declare their commitment to fostering a dialogue of frank détente That will allow them to find a preliminary framework that guarantees minimum premises that facilitate the creation of the springs that promote a solid and capable starting point from east to west and from south to north Where they can establish the foundations for a friendship treaty that will contribute to laying the foundations for a platform on which to build a beautiful future of love and peace" ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7432 "2025-08-18T14:09:19Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > I laughed. I’ll allow it. Meanwhile MAGA types, especially the evangelical / prosperity gospel types, will absolutely embrace the Trump-as-pope depiction as gospel truth. Maybe frame it, with rosaries dangling, on the kitchen wall. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7433 "2025-08-18T15:36:25Z")
I’m sure Newsom & staff are having a lot of fun with the social media games, but we the people can do that part. I just miss government by adults. We’ve got 50 governors: maybe one of the others could focus on behaving like a president? ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7434 "2025-08-18T16:37:06Z")
My fear today is the backup crew are going to hear Trump parrot-talk Putin’s terms and out of some weariness or frustration (and some of them have countries to run) to tell Zelensky, “That’s the best you’ll get”. - Give up land not even contested yet - Forget about NATO - Accept “One Free NATO-like trial certificate” - Pledge neutrality I hope he goes into the one-on-one knowing what kind of backing he has from Europe. I can see how Trump could play Mouth of Putin, and I hope the “Coalition of the Willing” leave united as no less than, “Thanks for the fish. We’ll get back to you” ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7435 "2025-08-18T17:04:36Z")
I think the fear is that Trump will go into some long diatribe trying to dominate the meeting and out of frustration someone around the table will tell Trump what they really think of him. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7436 "2025-08-18T17:09:39Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > what they really think of him. i didn’t quite catch the context, yet BBC commentators said something like they could tell Trump he is a “Man of Titanic Proportions” - which will confuse him a bit it that’s a compliment. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7437 "2025-08-18T17:11:59Z")
Are you sure they didn’t say that his Administration reminded them of The Titanic? ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7438 "2025-08-18T17:18:11Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > The dictator and the puppet don’t care about Ukraine even an iota. One thing to consider: 2020. Do you remember when the Felon was trying to pressure Ukraine to cough up the damning evidence that Joe & Hunter were engaged in criminal corruption involving Burisma, but the refused to give him what he wanted? Felon does not “not care” about Ukraine, he wants to punish them. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7439 "2025-08-18T17:32:00Z")
Zelensky said they can’t have elections while they’re at war. So Trump jumped on it to say that _we_ can’t have elections if we’re at war. UPDATE: Trump’s going off on Biden. I may vomit. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7440 "2025-08-18T17:48:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > UPDATE: Trump’s going off on Biden. I may vomit. Yeah, I had to turn it off. The fucking guy is deranged and deluded. He can’t answer any question without whining about how he’s so persecuted. Worst president in the history of the country and should be in prison. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7441 "2025-08-18T17:49:30Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Yeah, I had to turn it off. After one of the plants asked a question about mail-in voting, I decided to get up and go defecate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=368) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=370)