# 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:** 5
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/81 "2024-11-14T01:06:49Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > > [@aurora\_maire](#): > > > > He actually thought he had to be ethical. > > I respectfully disagree: I misspoke there. I was talking about when he recused himself from the Russia investigation, which is when Trump spit him out and stomped on him. He was under the impression that he should _appear_ ethical. So yes, you are correct, he was never _really_ ethical. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/82 "2024-11-14T01:33:34Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > On the plus side, the House Freedumb Caucus looses a vote and looses influence. Somehow, I think that district FL-1 can probably find and elect someone almost as rightwing, unethical and Trump-loyal as Matt Gaetz, as hard as it might be to imagine someone with all those attributes. ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/83 "2024-11-14T02:02:58Z")
In case anyone has any doubts about the number one item on Trump’s administration, [this nifty article on Yahoo has it straight from the jackass’s mouth](https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-tells-house-republicans-202438608.html): > President-elect [Donald Trump](https://people.com/tag/donald-trump/) told House Republicans that he won’t seek a third term as president — unless they find a way to make it possible. > > "I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you say, ‘he’s so good, we’ve got to figure something else,’ " Trump said while addressing the House Republican Conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 13. The crowd chuckled in response to his remark. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/84 "2024-11-14T02:07:48Z")
You know what they say, [“Don’t take Trump literally, ‘take him symbolically’”](https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-symbolically-anthony-scaramucci-232848). The ‘symbolism’ here is so concrete it you could bury a body with it. Stranger ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/85 "2024-11-14T02:34:13Z")
Spotted on _The Daily Show_ Xwitter account, regarding the Gaetz nomination: The Department of Justice isn’t within 1500 feet of a school, is it? ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/86 "2024-11-14T03:04:11Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > …Or Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence being a smooth confirmation either. I seriously thought you were kidding about this, but apparently not. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/87 "2024-11-14T03:42:18Z")
It’s an all-star right-wing gang. I am not even sure what to think at the moment. ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/88 "2024-11-14T04:01:02Z")
According to [Brian Tyler Cohen](https://youtu.be/-UJfAdv613E?si=s4LOCojElakCpchR), Gaetz has already resigned from the Congress. Interestingly enough, Gaetz’s resignation comes two days before a report - reported to be “highly damaging” to Gaetz - is to be voted on to be released from the House Ethics Committee. The Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction over Gaetz the second he leaves Congress. ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/89 "2024-11-14T04:11:25Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > According to [Brian Tyler Cohen](https://youtu.be/-UJfAdv613E?si=s4LOCojElakCpchR), Gaetz has already resigned from the Congress. Lord, I’m not a praying man, but if you could see fit in your wisdom to tank Gaetz’s Senate hearing and somehow get the voters in his district to replace him with a Democrat, I’ll start giving my spare change to the Salvation Army bellringers again. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/90 "2024-11-14T05:12:19Z")
How far-fetched? I honestly don’t know. So many insane things have happened lately that I find myself unable to distinguish between probable and improbable. Ron Brownstein on [X](https://x.com/RonBrownstein/status/1756435782666190884): > "Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration adviser, has publicly declared that they would pursue such an enormous effort partly by creating a private red-state army under the president’s command. " > > Posted to X > To round up migrants, Miller said, Trump would dispatch forces to “go around the country arresting illegal immigrants in large-scale raids.” Then, it would build “large-scale staging grounds near the border, most likely in TX,” to serve as internment camps for migrants > > [1:51 PM · Feb 10, 2024] Apparently Trump has hinted he’d use the Insurrection Act to temporarily suspend the Posse Comitatus Act. He wanted to do so during the George Floyd protests, but the GOP pushed back. I’m not so sure they’d try to stop him this time. Miller is crazy, crazy like a Fox…News broadcast. Someone tell me this is couldn’t possibly happen. ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/91 "2024-11-14T06:47:59Z")
Id tell you, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my almost 52 years on this planet, it’s to never lie to a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/92 "2024-11-14T06:50:59Z")
I had been thinking the same as a poster above, it sounds really foolish of Gaetz to resign before he’s even been approved by the Senate. He could lose his House seat **and** not become attorney general. ---
**Author:** ![Jihi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jihi/32/17768_2.png) [@Jihi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jihi)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/93 "2024-11-14T07:33:44Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > So many insane things have happened lately that I find myself unable to distinguish between probable and improbable. I just wanted to highlight this part, because it completely and wonderfully sums up how I’ve been feeling for about the last week or so. I have a handful of posts here and there, but I don’t think I’ve posted more than three or four times since the election. And this is most likely the reason why. I couldn’t quite put it into words, but this summarizes it concisely. I honestly have no idea what is going to happen next. I can realistically see scenarios ranging from Trump’s erratic laziness and insanity leading to the next 4 years being a complete cluster fuck and damaging to the country long-term, but otherwise indistinguishable from his first term. (Which was bad enough.) To worldwide scenarios that are essentially armageddon. I don’t want to think that and it seems insane for me to think that, but I can’t put it out of the realm of possibility. (What is Putin’s Russia going to do once he’s in office? And what effect is this going to have on NATO? Are we going to have recognizable elections in 2026 and 2028? I certainly hope so, but I wouldn’t care to bet money on that.) And then the news that we got yesterday and the day before? Gaetz as attorney general? Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence? A fucking Fox News host as Secretary of defense? As another poster put it elsewhere that I saw, are you fucking kidding me? I want to think that more rational heads will prevail, and that our institutions will hold. But we just elected a man who tried to overthrow democracy once already, live on national television. I just don’t know anymore… ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/94 "2024-11-14T07:47:37Z")
> [@Jihi](#): > > Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence? This is the one that blows my mind. Gaetz and the others are just slimy suckups, but we’ve known for years that Gabbard is _at minimum_ a deliberate friend to Russia. Even the Russians have been quite open about it; **[this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2_eL8t8D9Y)** is from 2022. If I were head of an intelligence service anywhere in the sane Western world, I would slam the door on sharing classified information with the Americans after Trump takes over. It’s all gonna go straight to Putin. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/95 "2024-11-14T08:06:13Z")
Aha! An article came out on CNN that explains this madness. People, Donald J. Trump is a troll! He’s trolling all of us with these picks. And yes, I’m serious. > Trump’s short-lived former first-term communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the president-elect’s personnel selections were purposely meant to “own the liberals.” Paraphrasing Trump’s intent, he added: “‘Let’s pick some triggering people.’ And those are the triggering people.” > > Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman agreed, telling CNN’s Manu Raju of the Gaetz selection: “It’s just kind of like a god-tier, kind of trolling, just to trigger a meltdown.” –[CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/14/politics/trump-outrage-washington-cabinet-analysis/index.html). In effect, Trump is saying–Wait, maybe not “in effect.” He may well be saying exactly this: “Let’s own the libs and all the fuckers who convicted me and made fun of my very manly diapers and Watch. Them. Squirm.” I hope the Senate reaches up past its collective rectum and finds enough of a conscience to refuse to confirm Gaetz and Gabbard. A silver lining here might be that Gaetz would be out of Congress AND the White House, for a little while, at least. Maybe. Oh, who am I kidding? He’d make Gaetz Chief Butt-Polisher or Catsup Czar or something. ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/96 "2024-11-14T08:10:45Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > Aha! An article came out on CNN that explains this madness. People, Donald J. Trump is a troll! He’s trolling all of us with these picks. And yes, I’m serious. That’s basically what my poll above is about: how is he trolling the country? ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/97 "2024-11-14T08:20:26Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > resignation comes two days before a report - reported to be “highly damaging” to Gaetz - is to be voted on to be released from the House Ethics Committee. > > The Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction over Gaetz the second he leaves Congress. But they don’t lose **the report** , so what stops them from releasing it? ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/98 "2024-11-14T08:44:09Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > Oh, who am I kidding? He’d make Gaetz … Catsup Czar or something. If he was catsup czar, I wonder how long he’d last. “Gaetz? I had to fire him.” “Why, Mr. Trump?” “He was late bringing catsup for my hamberders.” ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/99 "2024-11-14T09:03:43Z")
First job for the Department of Government Efficiency: making the Catsup Czar and the Ketchup Tsar the same person. ---
**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:** [November 14, 2024, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/100 "2024-11-14T12:05:57Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > Aha! An article came out on CNN that explains this madness. People, Donald J. Trump is a troll! He’s trolling all of us with these picks. And yes, I’m serious. > > > Trump’s short-lived former first-term communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the president-elect’s personnel selections were purposely meant to “own the liberals.” Paraphrasing Trump’s intent, he added: “‘Let’s pick some triggering people.’ And those are the triggering people.” > > > > Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman agreed, telling CNN’s Manu Raju of the Gaetz selection: “It’s just kind of like a god-tier, kind of trolling, just to trigger a meltdown.” > > –[CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/14/politics/trump-outrage-washington-cabinet-analysis/index.html). > In effect, Trump is saying–Wait, maybe not “in effect.” He may well be saying exactly this: “Let’s own the libs and all the fuckers who convicted me and made fun of my very manly diapers and Watch. Them. Squirm.” This actually makes perfect sense to me. He’s running the best reality show of his life and he’s going to milk it for all it’s worth in the next couple of months. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=6)