# 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:** 37
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/721 "2025-01-14T20:14:26Z")
I was ninja’d. I’ve edited my previous post to include what he said. ---
**Author:** ![ZenithBlade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/54ee81/32.png) [@ZenithBlade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenithBlade)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/722 "2025-01-14T20:21:35Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I think the millions would fall in line when their commanders and commanders’ commanders and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President of the United States, backed up by SCOTUS tell them the orders are legal. A dictator only needs to change the top, and the rest will follow. > > Edited to include the response made whilst I was typing: > > > [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > > > [T]hey had an officer come in and explain that we shouldn’t obey illegal orders. After which the chief came in and explained that while the officer was well meaning and all, we… would never get an illegal order, so shut up and do what you’re told. > > ^ What he said. > > > [@ZenithBlade](#): > > > > 1. At least half the country would strongly object to an unneeded, unprovoked invasion of an ally > > And… What’re we gonna do about it? Fair enough lol. If / When Orange Hitler becomes emperor for life, wtf is Europe supposed to do? Their militaries are beyond atrophied, and they need years to reach sufficient production capacity. So…… China is there only hope i guess? But why tf would China help Europe is the thing… ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/723 "2025-01-14T20:22:30Z")
> [@ZenithBlade](#): > > At least half the country would strongly object to an unneeded, unprovoked invasion of an ally Nope. More than half the people eligible to vote don’t give a damn what Donny does. If they did, they would have voted. ---
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/724 "2025-01-14T20:46:36Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > we as junior enlisted men … would never get an illegal order, so shut up and do what you’re told. And we saw the same attitude in Hegseth’s confirmation hearing today. One senator kept asking him if he’d push back on illegal orders from Trump, and his only answer was, “Trump will never give an illegal order”, even though Trump did that at least once last time around. So yeah, not so sure this will work out as planned. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/725 "2025-01-14T21:45:00Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > And we saw the same attitude in Hegseth’s confirmation hearing today. Jesus, what a joke that was. I had to turn it off PDQ before it made me physically ill. ---
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/726 "2025-01-14T21:48:08Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > One senator kept asking him if he’d push back on illegal orders from Trump, and his only answer was, “Trump will never give an illegal order”, even though Trump did that at least once last time around. An article on that: > **[This May Be the Worst Two Minutes From Hegseth’s Confirmation Hearing](https://newrepublic.com/post/190205/pete-hegseth-confirmation-hearing-hirono)** > > Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, struggled to answer a series of questions from Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono. Specifically: > Hirono interrupted, asking her question again: “Would you carry out an order to shoot protesters in the legs, as directed to Secretary Esper?” Hegseth continued talking while she talked. > > “You know what, that sounds to me that you will comply with such an order; you will shoot protesters in the leg,” Hirono replied. “Moving on!” ---
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/727 "2025-01-14T21:57:20Z")
[Pete Hegseth Seems Really Confused About Where Southeast Asia Is](https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/pete-hegseth-seems-really-confused-about-where-southeast-asia-is/ar-BB1rsbOy) > “Can you name the importance of at least one of the nations in ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and what type of agreement we have with at least one of those nations?” she asked. > > “I couldn’t tell you the exact amount of nations in that, but I know we have allies in South Korea and Japan and … with Australia,” Hegseth began responding. > > Duckworth cut him off to make a major correction. > > “None of those three countries that you’ve mentioned are in ASEAN,” she said. “I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations.” > > [ASEAN’s members](https://asean.org/member-states/) include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Australia, one of the countries Hegseth mentioned, isn’t even on the Asian continent. ---
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/728 "2025-01-14T22:00:30Z")
Trump announces the creation of a government agency that has already existed for 236 years. > **['Ignorant': Trump gets schooled as he proposes new agency to collect tariffs](https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2670822168/)** > > Donald Trump called for the creation of a new federal agency dedicated to collecting the tariffs he's threatening to impose on U.S. trading partners — but he was quickly taught there's already a government entity that does that.While the... ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/729 "2025-01-14T22:02:36Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > But really, Canada should get California because the Pacific Coast goes together. But California has burrito wagons, not poutine wagons. And ask yourself, “what’s the largest city in California that does NOT have a Spanish name?” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/730 "2025-01-14T22:04:50Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > Plus the fucking Canucks already invented anti-american things like poutine, ice hockey, and an almost pathological need to place a Canadian flag patch on their backpacks when travelling. I’ll never understand how “French fries in gravy” could in any way be seen as “anti-American.” ---
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/731 "2025-01-14T22:10:27Z")
I like it. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/732 "2025-01-14T22:13:39Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > My prediction, in this hypothetical, is that Trump gets bamboozled by whoever kisses his ass the right way and basically cons him into giving them a ridiculous deal, and he ends up getting screwed over. Just because a person is a con artist, that doesn’t make them immune to other cons. But it won’t actually be Trump that is screwed over it will be us. It will be like his casinos that went belly up due to his mismanagement. He got out with a a tidy profit it was his investors who got screwed. Now he has the a new investor to screw over, one who can’t turn him down, the US treasury. ---
**Author:** ![SailorHG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SailorHG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SailorHG)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/733 "2025-01-14T22:18:32Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > Danish is not _that hard_ to learn. That’s not what my Swedish friends tell me: “Do you know why it takes so long for Danish kids to learn how to talk? Because they can’t understand their parents!” ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/734 "2025-01-14T22:20:05Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’ll never understand how “French fries in gravy” could in any way be seen as “anti-American.” I could picture learning to like it. I like cheese. I like gravy. Fries are pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/735 "2025-01-14T22:28:34Z")
I’ve had it a few times (in American restaurants, so possibly not Authentic Poutine) and it’s one of the most amazing foods I’ve ever had in my life. I can also literally feel my arteries closing up when I eat it, so I don’t have it very often. ---
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/736 "2025-01-14T22:34:09Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I could picture learning to like it. I like cheese. I like gravy. Fries are pretty good. Replace the gravy with chili, and it’s better. 😉 ---
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/737 "2025-01-14T22:35:02Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > But it won’t actually be Trump that is screwed over it will be us. Yeah, that was the point. While he gets conned, it’s everyone else that suffers. That’s why you don’t elect a moron to POTUS. ---
**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:** [January 14, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/738 "2025-01-14T22:40:25Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’ll never understand how “French fries in gravy” could in any way be seen as “anti-American.” French fries and gravy are perfectly American. Hell, they’re Canadian too. French fries and gravy _and cheese curds_—that’s poutine, and in spite of being Canadian, I hate it. It’s only become popular in the last 30 years or so, after escaping Quebec. I’ll take a plate of fries-n-gravy any day. Keep the cheese curds as far away from it as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/739 "2025-01-14T22:47:06Z")
French fries, gravy, and _something that’s not exactly cheese_ just make it even more American-friendly. ---
**Author:** ![neitherscout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@neitherscout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neitherscout)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/740 "2025-01-14T22:48:25Z")
I am really getting increasingly bewildered by the antics and behavior of the left in recent years. When I look at many of the statements and rants that are being made even till this day, the term TDS simply can’t help but come to my mind. Just to be clear, you are going on record as actually saying that the mere fact that Trump is simply requesting that he has access to a constitutionally provided procedure that PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS have used throughout the years so as to get in one or two people that he feels are vital to the agenda _for which he has been given a mandate for by the American people_, so as to bypass a malicious and corrupt senate…you are claiming that THAT is an act that makes him a “dictator”??? This is unbelievable! So what about previous presidents who in the past have used the recess option to get in people? Are you also going to call _them_ ‘dictators’ as well? Or I guess it doesn’t count for the ‘establishment’ or ‘deep state’ favored presidents? And never mind the utter illogic of calling him a ‘dictator’ for merely REQUESTING this long-provided loophole. I mean, maybe it’s just me, but I would think a **real** dictator would not request or beg for anything. He would simply send the state police or his personal armed security army to break doors and make people do what he wants. He would also use the powers of the state and federal courts to arrest, put on phony trials and throw in jail political opponents who displease him and don’t serve his agenda. But wait…those things are _exactly_ what the establishment Democrats and their new-found deep-state accomplices have been doing for years. So of course that doesn’t count. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=36) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=38)