# 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:** 9
**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 17, 2024, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/161 "2024-11-17T06:59:38Z")
[HOLY CRAP!](https://www.aol.com/news/trump-transition-team-compiling-list-015251335.html) (The link above goes to AOL.) > **Trump transition team compiling list of current and former U.S. military officers for possible courts-martial** > > The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plan. > > Officials working on the transition are considering creating a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, including gathering information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military, how it was carried out, and whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason, the U.S. official and person with knowledge of the plan said. Who was the Number One Individual involved in the withdrawal? Oh, yes. 'Twas the president who made the agreement with the Taliban in the first place. Yeah, let’s try that twerp for treason. This is even more proof Trump hates the military. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2024, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/162 "2024-11-17T07:17:22Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > A government so efficient that it does nothing! Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to remove! In my occasional anarchist wet-dreams, this could occur. Then I wake up and I need mom to clean the sheets for me. ---
**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 17, 2024, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/163 "2024-11-17T07:21:38Z")
We’re going to be [farked](https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-names-fossil-fuel-executive-213214489.html). (The link goes to Yahoo.) > President-elect [Donald Trump](https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump) has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration. > > CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of [oil and gas development](https://apnews.com/hub/oil-and-gas-industry), including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. > > Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change, and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end [a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals](https://apnews.com/article/lng-exports-biden-europe-climate-russia-3c2bfd853c0d53531a677b142b009dbc) by the Biden administration. ---
**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 17, 2024, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/164 "2024-11-17T11:51:40Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > This is even more proof Trump hates the military. First, one of Trump’s supplicants wants to take away benefits to veterans by de-authorizing the VA, and now these turds want to recall senior military officers to active duty to courts-martial them for ‘treason’ for following legal orders of the Commander-in-Chief? These people don’t seem to realize that many veterans have, as Liam Neeson would say, [“a very particular set of skills”](https://youtu.be/jZOywn1qArI?si=YeX3WgSxoogcwmyV&t=14s), and as a group tend to be better armed than ‘Antifa’ protestors and angry college kids. They also clearly skipped history class the day they talked about the [“Bonus Army”](https://medium.com/war-is-boring/when-patton-rolled-tanks-over-veterans-in-washington-d-c-77fdc23a1159). What a bunch of self-defeating, nihilistic, _stupid_ motherfuckers, just shitting all over themselves and smearing it on the wall just for yucks. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/165 "2024-11-17T13:51:01Z")
I’m not ex-military, but I’m guessing the average Trump-supporting enlisted man can probably be fairly easily convinced that the generals purposely messed up the Afghan withdrawal, and a court-martial is justified. Note: not saying all enlisted men are Trump supporting, but I’d be unsurprised if it were true. Look at post WWI Germany (and presumably other defeated countries) where “our leaders betrayed us”. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/166 "2024-11-17T14:48:42Z")
Government which does nothing. Yet another example of four dimensional chess mastery… Comedian John Mulaney has a bit about how Trump was a hobo’s idea of a rich guy. “One day I’ll have big buildings, with my own name on them in big letters. And I’ll have hair made of gold…”. He jokes Trump heard this hobo rambling and adapted it as his life philosophy. Maybe, when younger, Trump read about the Chinese philosophy of wu wei… government which does nothing? **wu wei** , _as found in the [Daodejing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daodejing) and [Zhuangzi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi_(book)), to denote two different things._ _1. An “attitude of genuine non-action, motivated by a lack of desire to participate in human affairs” and 2. A “technique by means of which the one who practices it may gain enhanced control of human affairs”._ _The first is quite in line with the contemplative Daoism of the Zhuangzi. Some believe that “contemplative Daoism” came first, and “purposive Daoism” second._ _Described as a source of serenity in Daoist thought, only rarely do Daoist texts suggest that ordinary people could gain political power through wu wei. The Zhuangzi does not seem to indicate a definitive philosophical idea, simply that the [sage](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sage_(philosophy)) “does not occupy himself with the affairs of the world”._ Meh. On second thought, this seems unlikely. ---
**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 17, 2024, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/167 "2024-11-17T14:54:13Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > I’m not ex-military, but I’m guessing the average Trump-supporting enlisted man can probably be fairly easily convinced that the generals purposely messed up the Afghan withdrawal, and a court-martial is justified. Note: not saying all enlisted men are Trump supporting, but I’d be unsurprised if it were true. That is certainly plausible (and the typical contempt that enlisted have for the lack of competence of high ranking officers is often not misplaced) but hobbling the already underfunded and understaffed Veterans Administration is not going to win friends and influence people even among Trump-loving vets. Even Reagan was smart enough not to fuck with veterans’ benefits, and despite a pledge to reduce government size and budget (_which he ultimately did not_) he actually [elevated the Veterans Administration to a Cabinet-level department](https://department.va.gov/history/100-objects/object-41-creating-the-department-of-veterans-affairs/) as a means of assuring Vietnam War vets who were suffering from chronic illness that they would not be abandoned. Trump and these people he is surrounding himself with aren’t as smart as Reagan, who whatever else you think about him, was not our most intellectually distinguished presidents. But he’s still a fucking MacArthur Genius in comparison to Trump, who has not thought this through or learned any lesson from any history class that he likely snooze through because it wasn’t about him. Or more succinctly, in the cruder parlance of our times, “Fuck around and find out.” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/168 "2024-11-17T15:53:29Z")
As a Canuck, I’d never heard of the US “Bonus Army”. I appreciate the link. I think most of those who serve in the military are underpaid and often taken advantage of. They generally deserve their benefits, and removing these is unwise. One of the few positive effects of Trump is it may force Canada to support its own threadbare forces. Certainly we need to be able to defend our Arctic borders in the near future. More than 75% of Canadians think more funding is needed. Canada could use a proper intelligence service too, but only if it has meaningful oversight. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/169 "2024-11-17T16:25:38Z")
The New York Times has a solid article on why Trump’s picks will prove unpopular (at which point Trump will probably abandon some of them). **Excerpt:** _My colleague Ezra Klein, has written, for example, about the power that “[the groups](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/opinion/obama-ezra-klein-podcast-michael-lind.html)” — progressive activist organizations — exercise over Democratic policy. They demand that politicians focus on issues that might be important, but that are often not matters of majority concern. Or, even worse, they demand political fealty to positions that majorities reject._ _In many administrations, this dynamic results in a kind of tug of war between the activists who demand attention to their pet causes and the political realists who grab the candidate’s arm and tap the sign that reads, “It’s the economy, stupid. And then, every few years, the majority steps back in, determines whether politicians have taken care of prices, crime and peace, and then ruthlessly punishes failure — regardless of whether the activists got what they wanted, and even if they might agree with the activists’ concerns._ _ **With Trump, the dynamic is different. He’s so consumed with his grievances and his base’s grievances that rather than there being a tug of war between activists and pragmatists for the politician’s attention, the activists and the politician are both aligned against the pragmatists.** _. _That was the clear direction of Trump’s first term. At first he surrounded himself with serious people. Think of the contrast, for example, between Jim Mattis as secretary of defense and Pete Hegseth, or between Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services for most of Trump’s first term, and an anti-vax conspiracy theorist like Robert F. Kennedy Jr._ _But the serious people told him no. They tried to block his worst instincts. So they were purged. Throughout the campaign, Trump ran with two messages. On the airwaves, he convinced millions of Americans that they were electing the Trump of January 2019, when inflation was low, and the border was under reasonable control. At his rallies, he told MAGA that it was electing the Trump of January 2021, the man unleashed from establishment control and hellbent on burning it all down._ _But here is his fundamental problem: The desires of his heart and the grievances of his base are ultimately incompatible with the demands of the majority, and the more he pursues his own priorities, the more he’ll revive his opposition. He’ll end his political career as an unpopular politician who ushered in a Democratic majority yet again._ _The reason goes deeper than ideology (many of his nominees are extremists) or scandal ([Kennedy](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/09/rfk-jr-journal-affairs-diary-kennedy.html), [Hegseth](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/15/pete-hegseth-sexual-assault-investigation/), and [Matt Gaetz](https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-testified-house-ethics-committee-gaetz-sex-17/story?id=115867555), each have their own histories of alleged sexual misconduct, for example). Ultimately, it goes to competence: **Can you do the job we ultimately hired you to do?** _ Source: > **[Opinion | Donald Trump Is Already Starting to Fail](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/opinion/trump-kennedy-gaetz-hegseth.html)** > > The president-elect is planting the seeds of his own political demise. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/170 "2024-11-17T16:32:30Z")
This article discusses veterans benefits and other potential programs that could be cut by DOGE. ## 10 programs that could be on the ‘government efficiency’ chopping block ### Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk’s partner at President-elect Donald Trump’s planned spending panel, suggested defunding programs that Congress no longer authorizes. Here are some of those. Limited gift link: [https://wapo.st/40RUgi6](https://wapo.st/40RUgi6) Normal link of same article: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/16/trump-musk-ramaswamy-doge-program/?itid=hp\_mv-top-stories\_world-biz-tech\_p007\_f005](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/16/trump-musk-ramaswamy-doge-program/?itid=hp_mv-top-stories_world-biz-tech_p007_f005) ---
**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 17, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/171 "2024-11-17T16:47:31Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I think most of those who serve in the military are underpaid and often taken advantage of. They generally deserve their benefits, and removing these is unwise. And many suffer lifelong physical injuries, occupational disabilities, chronic illness, and mental health issues due to their service even if they weren’t directly traumatized in combat. Providing health care and other benefits ‘gratis’ is almost the definition of the absolute bare fucking minimum we, as a society, should do for people who have served with the potential for being put in harm’s way. (And yes, I realize that many veterans ‘work the system’ to get the maximum benefits to which they are questionably entitled, to which my response is if we had a more equitable social support network they wouldn’t need to ‘work the system’, and no, I’m not interested in the debate about what that means, please and thank you.) I don’t want Trump et al to do this to veterans and their families, but I have to admit a perverse desire to see them try because there is no way they are going to be able to blame this on Biden, or Harris, or Nancy Pelosi, or whomever. I want this to go before Congress and GOP members of the House and then the Senate have to vote nearly _en bloc_ to agree to disestablish these agencies and departments, and answer to why they would do such a thing or else get into a _tête-à-tête_ conflict with Trump’s Cavalcade of Cosmic Creeps. And I kind of want one or two Republican senators to dissent so that Susan Collins is actually forced to stand for something for once or otherwise answer for her complete lack of spine. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/172 "2024-11-17T16:59:54Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > This article discusses veterans benefits and other potential programs that could be cut by DOGE. While these cuts are obviously morally repugnant in terms of the vulnerable populations they would target, they don’t even make sense from the “rational efficiency” perspective that these capitalist outsiders are supposedly bringing to government. Congress hasn’t failed to reauthorize these programs because the programs are useless or inefficient – it’s because Congress couldn’t get their shit together. And Congress does de facto authorize these programs every year by continuing to fund them. This is a middle school civics student’s version of rationalizing government. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/173 "2024-11-17T18:04:53Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Normal link of same article: Neither one of your links allow viewing the article you cited without subscription for me. Could you please list the “10 programs that could be on the ‘government efficiency’ chopping block”? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/174 "2024-11-17T19:43:51Z")
The article quotes this free source from the congressional budget office… > **[60390-EEAA.pdf](https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2024-07/60390-EEAA.pdf)** > > 218.99 KB ---
**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:** [November 17, 2024, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/175 "2024-11-17T22:01:53Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Providing health care and other benefits ‘gratis’ is almost the definition of the absolute bare fucking minimum we, as a society, should do for people who have served with the potential for being put in harm’s way Don’t they actually recruit using “All these benefits” as a major draw? Pure bait and switch to pull the benefits now. ---
**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 18, 2024, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/176 "2024-11-18T07:17:18Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Don’t they actually recruit using “All these benefits” as a major draw? Pure bait and switch to pull the benefits now. I seem to remember a case where a veteran or retiree sued the government and lost because none of what he was suing about was guaranteed. I think the subject of his suit was healthcare. ---
**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 18, 2024, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/177 "2024-11-18T08:06:26Z")
[Evidently all is not well in Anti-Camelot.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/battle-over-trump-treasury-sec-000321274.html) (The link goes to Yahoo.) > **Trump Rethinking Treasury Pick After Finalist Annoys Him: Report** Read the article. It’s a roller coaster ride. But the key thing to note here is: Don’t piss off the king. ---
**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 18, 2024, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/178 "2024-11-18T11:22:50Z")
It’s an uncomfortable place to be, hoping that Trump’s ego-driven pettiness, mercurial temper, and general stupidity will be what saves the US from a worst case scenario, but here we are. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2024, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/179 "2024-11-18T12:40:58Z")
Part of me wants all this to be a disaster, in the hopes that the MAGA dipshits will finally see the incompetence and spite. Face leopards and all that. Unfortunately, the other part of me knows that no matter how bold and direct the line between Trump and failure is, they’ll blame Obama and Soros. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2024, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/180 "2024-11-18T14:01:53Z")
Trump’s pick to head the FCC, apparently, intends to use the Twitter/X/Fox News/OANN/Newsmax model across all media outlets: > **[Brendan Carr wrote the FCC chapter in ‘Project 2025.’ Now he’s Trump’s pick...](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/18/media/brendan-carr-trump-fcc-nominee-project-2025/index.html)** > > President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission signaled that it won’t be business-as-usual at the country’s communications regulatory agency > [@](#): > > President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wasted no time in stating his priorities on Sunday night. Just one hour after thanking the president for the appointment, Carr wrote on X, “We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.” > > Carr and Trump’s powerful ally Elon Musk immediately replied with one word of affirmation: “Based.” > > The comments from Carr, who wrote the chapter on the FCC in the conservative blueprint Project 2025, signaled that it won’t be business-as-usual at the country’s communications regulatory agency. Past chairs of the agency, both Republicans and Democrats, have emphasized broadband internet deployment and wireless spectrum policy. Carr didn’t mention those issues on Sunday night. > > Instead, he took aim at technology companies for “censorship;” promised to hold broadcast TV and radio stations accountable; and pledged to end the FCC’s promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. What could possibly go wrong? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=10)