# 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:** 392
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7882 "2025-09-04T00:31:32Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Next he’s gonna declare war on the ocean. Cnut, despite the legend, did understand the limits of his power. His “stopping the tide” thing was a way to demonstrate that he, though a powerful king, was not all-powerful. I suspect Trump thinks he can control the tides. His grasp of basic reality is thin. (Idle thought… I wonder if the orange blob is able to swim?) ---
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7883 "2025-09-04T00:35:35Z")
Do you consider _floating_ a subset of _swimming_? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7884 "2025-09-04T00:38:19Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > > [@scabpicker](#): > > > > Next he’s gonna declare war on the ocean. > > He wouldn’t be the first Cnut to do so. > [@scudsucker](#): > > Cnut, despite the legend, did understand the limits of his power. Heheh, I was actually thinking of Caligula. > **[When mad emperor Caligula declared war on the sea ... and then claimed he had...](https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/ancient-history/caligula-attacks-the-sea/)** > > Discover why Emperor Caligula declared war on the sea, ordered troops to collect seashells, and how this bizarre act fueled his downfall in ancient Roman history. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7885 "2025-09-04T00:38:49Z")
Well, one euphemism for doing a dump is “dropping the kids off at the pool” and most of mine float.. and due to my diet they are usually orange-ish… I am going to predict that Trump will float. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7886 "2025-09-04T00:39:38Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > > [@robby](#): > > > > All because Trump doesn’t like wind power because a project supposedly spoiled his view at his Scotland golf course. > > Jesus Christ. 80% done. I understand they just stopped further construction. I don’t know if they are generating, but I don’t think the entire project has to be done before power starts flowing. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7887 "2025-09-04T01:14:54Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > > [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > > > a flaming red space in the sea of Colorado blue > > It appears that you have that sort of backwards. Colorado Springs is on the Front, which means it is at the edge of the plains – most of the state east of the Front looks like Kansas and is also a lot like Kansas. Colorado Springs is not in the middle of a sea of blue, it is more like on the coast of a sea of red. Oops, my bad for not locating its position geographically before employing that metaphor. So more of a red cape or peninsula, then? Red Coast of Colorado? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7888 "2025-09-04T01:28:37Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Please, no one tell the wannabe dictator that pissing off members of the military by not paying them i is a bad idea. He doesn’t need to know that. Good thing he likely has no idea of the Praetorian Guard’s history. Or, come to think of it, maybe he should be encouraged to form his own. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7889 "2025-09-04T02:10:03Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > > [@enipla](#): > > > > > [@robby](#): > > > > > > All because Trump doesn’t like wind power because a project supposedly spoiled his view at his Scotland golf course. > > > > Jesus Christ. 80% done. > > I understand they just stopped further construction. I don’t know if they are generating, but I don’t think the entire project has to be done before power starts flowing. The project is reportedly 80% complete with all offshore foundations installed and 45 out of 65 wind turbines installed. They are not yet generating electricity. I can’t find any information about whether or not the underwater electrical transmission lines have been installed yet, but if they haven’t then it doesn’t matter if a turbine is operational or not. And even if all of the underwater infrastructure is in place, the federal government controls all of the permits and can simply not allow them to put the turbines into operation. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the next step is to order them demolished. After all, this is the same evil administration that has been ordering the destruction and disposal of already paid-for medical supplies and emergency food aid sitting in warehouses. Supplies paid for by our taxes. Talk about fraud, waste, and abuse. The anguish and disgust I feel for this senseless waste of resources really gets to me. Not to mention the resultant loss of lives (in the case of aid that is destroyed) and damage to the environment (if a wind farm is replaced with a fossil fuel generator). > **[Revolution Wind receives offshore stop-work order from US Department of the...](https://orsted.com/en/company-announcement-list/2025/08/revolution-wind-receives-offshore-stop-work-order--145387701)** > > On 22 August 2025, Ørsted’s subsidiary Revolution Wind LLC, a 50/50 joint venture with Global Infrastructure Partner’s Skyborn Renewables, received an order instructing the project to stop activities on the outer continental shelf related to the... ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7890 "2025-09-04T02:14:51Z")
> [@bobsmom101](#): > > Thanks Monty. You lasted a lot longer shoveling this muck than I would have. @Monty, I honestly don’t know how you are able to find the time to compile such comprehensive synopses. So yes, thanks for this. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7891 "2025-09-04T02:17:23Z")
“Points” are what you get when you subtract one percentage from another. So the difference between 50 percent and 25 percent is 50 percent but it’s a difference of 25 percentage points. It’s similar in function to what British pollsters call “swing.” ---
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7892 "2025-09-04T03:05:26Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > So more of a red cape or peninsula, then? Red Coast of Colorado? Have you been to an ocean beach? You know, when the tide is out, that puffy yellow stuff lying where the water line got to? Just make that red and you have descibed Colorado Springs. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7893 "2025-09-04T03:09:56Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It’s similar in function to what British pollsters call “swing.” Thanks! I’d always thought they called it _margin_ but now I understand their reports better. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7894 "2025-09-04T03:21:13Z")
‘I don’t like margin ,I only eat butter.’ ~ DJT ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7895 "2025-09-04T03:27:40Z")
Of course the killing of 11 alleged smugglers close to Venezuelan waters is also part of the clusterfuck. > **[Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean](https://www.justsecurity.org/119982/legal-issues-military-attack-carribean/)** > > The Trump administration’s extraordinary lethal attack on this purported smuggling vessel raises significant potential legal issues. > Any use of force by the United States must also comply with the UN Charter—both as a matter of international and [domestic law](https://publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawreview/2020/11/19/presidential-war-powers-the-take-care-and-article-24-of-the-u-n-charter/). Article 2(4) of the UN Charter provides that: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” > > The UN Charter safeguards _states_ from the use of force. It is not currently clear what states (if any) were impacted by the U.S. attack on this vessel and thus whether Article 2(4) of the Charter is implicated by this strike. According to the Trump administration, the strike occurred in international waters. There is no indication that the vessel was flagged under any country (which would make an attack on the vessel an attack on the flag state in the view of the United States) Although some countries (such as the United States) have in the past treated attacks on their nationals abroad as attacks on the state itself, as of publication no country has claimed the 11 people reportedly killed in this attack and the Venezuelan government claimed the video of the incident was generated by [artificial intelligence](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/world/americas/venezuela-drug-boat-trump-us.html). > > ## **Use of Lethal Force** > > Working in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy has for many years conducted maritime interdictions of suspected drug smugglers under a [_law enforcement paradigm_](https://www.usff.navy.mil/Press-Room/News-Stories/Article/4251998/us-coast-guard-uss-sampson-conduct-drug-interdiction-in-eastern-pacific/)—including during the current Trump administration. In such [operations](https://www.usff.navy.mil/Press-Room/News-Stories/Article/4251998/us-coast-guard-uss-sampson-conduct-drug-interdiction-in-eastern-pacific/), U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement personnel board the suspect vessel and take the crew into custody. > > The attack on the smuggling vessel in the Caribbean was so extraordinary because there was no reported attempt to stop the boat or detain its crew. Instead, the use of lethal force was used in the first resort. According to Secretary of State Rubio, President Trump was given the option of conducting a maritime interdiction but instead elected to blow up the vessel to send a message. Such use of lethal force raises a number of distinct legal issues. > > ### _ **Assassination Ban** _ > > [Executive Order 12333](https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html#2.11) prohibits assassinations, providing that “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” Under executive branch legal doctrine, “assassination” is understood to include the targeted killing of individuals. (The [Uniform Code of Military Justice](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/918) also of course criminalizes murder.) > > Public reporting on the past interpretation of the assassination ban indicates that the U.S. executive branch has recognized two potentially relevant exceptions to the prohibition in recent decades: (1) actions taken in self-defense; and (2) use of lethal force consistent with the law of war. > > With respect to self-defense, the Trump administration has indicated that it is countering the flow of drugs to the United States. But drug trafficking by itself does not constitute an “armed attack,” nor a threat of an imminent armed attack, for the purposes in international law. Nor does drug trafficking represent the predicate for self-defense commonly recognized as required for the invocation of self-defense under criminal law in the United States. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7896 "2025-09-04T03:38:09Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Executive Order 12333 Everything in that EO is meaningless and of no import to the felon because it was signed by someone other than him. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7897 "2025-09-04T03:50:57Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Everything in that EO is meaningless and of no import to the felon because it was signed by someone other than him. That goes without saying, however, as noted before, threads like this one are a record to demand action. Of course, once a new congress comes in. And before, a good thing to point to the useless republicans in congress who are “using” their power to not do what they are supposed to be doing. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7898 "2025-09-04T05:11:36Z")
Trump didn’t do his usual passive/aggressive holiday post for Labor Day. Probably because Gavin Newsom mocked the hell out of him with a lookalike. But he did post this about the WWII celebration in China to make up for it. [![](https://unstuckpolitics.com/uploads/default/original/3X/7/0/702d03c0eccde4a10f6da2506304c98250219a8e.jpeg) ](https://unstuckpolitics.com/uploads/default/original/3X/7/0/702d03c0eccde4a10f6da2506304c98250219a8e.jpeg) ---
**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:** [September 4, 2025, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7899 "2025-09-04T07:31:41Z")
He posted that, no doubt, because he was triggered when the Chinese press showed Vlad and Jong Un getting in a car together after the parade. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7900 "2025-09-04T07:39:00Z")
The leaders will never see the post. He forgot, “Thank you for your attention.” ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/7901 "2025-09-04T10:53:43Z")
They’ll see it and laugh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=391) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=393)