# The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [December 1, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298 "2025-12-01T20:32:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 397
**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 12, 2026, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7921 "2026-08-12T01:03:06Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > (did you mean a riff on the, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” ?) Given what’s happened with the current mal/misadmninistration, I think “We’re going to need another Timothy!” would be appropriate. Re @Euphonious_Polemic picture of the con in a cart: The con’s larping as Agent 13 in _Get Smart_. That’s surprising given the main character is _Agent 86_. [“Your agonizer, please.”](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tWy6L_hfy_A) [I truly wish I were kidding.](https://www.aol.com/articles/ice-plans-officers-gloves-deliver-212444000.html) > [@](#): > > ICE [plans to spend](https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-enforcement-dhs-ice-deportation-9eef2e24fede3e4d593be462cbcf31f2) up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents by March, according to a [notice published Monday](https://apfs-cloud.dhs.gov/record/74524/public-print/) by the Department of Homeland Security. > > The devices are known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky. They have been used in recent years by some jails and police departments. [Lest you thought the United States of America is most definitely not a dictatorship…](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-doesnt-dismiss-declaring-national-214352655.html) > [@](#): > > [President Donald Trump](https://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/donald-trump/) isn’t dismissing the possibility that he could declare a national security emergency in an attempt to establish new voting restrictions stalled in the Senate, telling an interviewer that “stranger things have happened.” > > Trump has spent weeks hammering senators to pass [the SAVE America Act](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/12/what-is-the-save-act-voter-id-rules/88642716007/), legislation that would greatly restrict mail-in voting and mandate proof of citizenship and a photo ID to cast a ballot. > > The bill is Trump’s top legislative priority, but it has struggled to attract enough support in the Senate, and lawmakers left for their August recess last week [without passing it](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/08/08/senate-august-recess-voter-id-todd-blanche-shutdown/91213608007/). > > During a [Real America’s Voice interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg3HG-10T1U) with Trump on Aug. 10, host Wayne Allyn Root suggested bypassing the Senate and taking executive action to implement elements of the SAVE America Act, a move that almost certainly would be challenged in court. > > “Let me put an idea in your head, OK?” Root said, adding: “You have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections … so if you do this in the next month we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship and a limit to mail-in ballots.” > > “Let me just say that stranger things have happened, OK?” Trump responded. “I’ll leave it at that.” [I wonder what that was in response to.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/us--trump-elections-215246348.html) > [@](#): > > BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled against President Donald Trump’s [executive order](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mail-voting-elections-47cc334b1fb7742244a9c4f176b355cd) that sought to create a federal voter list and directly involve the U.S. Postal Service in election operations in a way that would limit mail voting. > > U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani had already halted the order Trump signed in March, his second one attempting to set national election rules. On June 25, [she sided with Democratic state attorneys general](https://apnews.com/article/trump-executive-order-elections-mail-voting-b28c3425c1dc968cd0f57c61fb7a684e) in granting summary judgment, preventing the core parts of Trump’s order from taking effect. > > Tuesday’s ruling creates another legal hurdle for the Trump administration to overcome should it get the initial injunction lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court. > > “That it is now less than 90 days before the November 3, 2026 midterm elections underscores the critical need for an injunction to prevent Defendants from changing election rules on the eve of the election,” she wrote. [The felon’s meddling with the Kennedy Center caused a quarter million dollar loss.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/kennedy-center-cover-250-000-193432603.html) > [@](#): > > The Kennedy Center will have to pay more than $250,000 to cover the legal fees of a jazz musician it tried, and [failed, to sue](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/trump-lawsuit-kennedy-center-musician-dismissed-1235573577/) for [canceling a concert](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kennedy-center-christmas-eve-concert-canceled-trump-name-1235490436/) in protest of President Donald Trump’s [takeover of the cultural institution](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/trump-kennedy-center-everything-that-happend-2026-1235492341/). > > On Monday, Washington D.C. Superior Court Judge Tanya Jones Bosier granted musician Chuck Redd’s motion requesting that the Kennedy Center cover his costs related to the failed lawsuit. While the Kennedy Center’s lawyers argued the sum Redd was seeking was “out of all proportion to the issue at stake,” Jones Bosier found the amount of $252,479.70 appropriate for the amount of time Redd’s lawyers put into the case. > > In a statement, Redd’s lawyer, Lisa J. Banks, celebrated the ruling: “The Trump-controlled Kennedy Center tried to silence opposition to its illegal name change by filing a meritless lawsuit against jazz musician Chuck Redd. The court rightly dismissed that breach of contract lawsuit, finding there was no contract and no damages, and was brought against Mr. Redd based on his protected opposition. Now the court has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay Mr. Redd’s legal fees, which is appropriate as no citizen should have to spend time and money fending off baseless and politically motivated lawsuits filed by the Trump Administration.” [Did you know executive immunity is contagious?](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/doj-office-says-trumps-outside-165619947.html) > [@](#): > > President Trump’s outside advisers — individuals who are not employed by the federal government — may now be protected from future congressional and legal investigations, according to a new opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. > > In a [21-page opinion](https://www.justice.gov/olc/media/1457271/dl?ftag=YHF4eb9d17) published Monday evening, the Office of Legal Counsel told the White House that the president can move to extend executive privilege, the right of the president to contain confidential communications within the executive branch, to advisers who do not work for the White House, but who provide him with direct advice. > > The new opinion says that executive privilege can apply to private advisers of the president if the communications “relate to official presidential decisionmaking,” are confidential, and involve conversations between the president and his direct team of advisers. [World Health Organization has a great response to the felon’s asinine executive order.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/who-defends-immunisation-schedules-after-trump-orders-fewer-childhood-shots-100552188.html) > [@](#): > > GENEVA, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization on Tuesday defended the science-based process used to determine childhood immunisation schedules after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an ‌executive order aimed at reducing the number of recommended childhood vaccinations in the United States. > > On ‌Monday, Trump signed an executive order calling for a reduced childhood vaccination schedule of 11 immunisations. Trump said the move would provide ​U.S. children with “gold-standard” protection and align the United States more closely with other developed countries that recommend fewer shots. > > Vaccine experts say that other developed countries that may recommend fewer shots face different disease risks and have different healthcare systems. > > The order advances a long-standing objective of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has questioned ‌vaccine safety and promoted claims linking ⁠vaccines to autism even though scientific studies and public health authorities have found no evidence of a link. > > WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told a press briefing in Geneva that ⁠vaccination recommendations were based on more than 60 years of research by WHO, national authorities and independent expert groups. > > The timing of individual vaccines was determined through extensive scientific review of when people were most vulnerable to particular diseases ​and ​the development of the immune system, Jašarević told reporters ​in Geneva. > > Jašarević said countries typically relied on national ‌immunisation technical advisory groups made up of multidisciplinary experts who provided independent, evidence-based recommendations to governments and vaccination programme managers. Those groups, he said, draw on guidance from WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) when establishing national schedules. > > “What comes out from WHO is science-based,” Jašarević said. [The convicted felon has a new nickname for those he doesn’t like. Of course it shows how bigoted he is.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/donald-trump-uses-insult-against-023159476.html) > [@](#): > > President Donald Trump has escalated the attacks on his political foes by adding another twisted smear to his MAGA vocabulary. > > Trump, 80, has a history of obsessing over certain phrases, including his grammatically challenged [“Dumocrats,”](https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-strait-deal-collapses-while-he-obsesses-over-how-to-spell-dumb/) which he often needs to explain. > > While signing an executive order in the White House on Monday, Trump used a soft question on his advice for the Democrats ahead of the midterm elections to take his latest insult out for a spin. > > “We have jihadists being elected all over the place,” Trump said, adding, “We have this whether it’s communism, jihadism…” > > Trump has been throwing out the communist line over the past weeks; however, the president appears to be heightening his rhetoric, [CNN notes](https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/10/politics/trump-jihadists-midterms-democrats). Trump added Monday that a friend told him to use the term “jihadists.” I stopped talking about my imaginary friend when I was about five. I guess he’s still jonesing to ban Muslims from America. [Why am I not surprised the fraudster’s main business is going kaput?](https://finance.yahoo.com/media-advertising/articles/trump-media-company-owns-truth-005400178.html) > [@](#): > > Donald Trump’s media company – which owns the Truth Social platform favored by the US president – posted a $238m loss in the second quarter. > > Trump Media & Technology on Monday [reported that losses](https://s3.amazonaws.com/b2icontent.irpass.cc/2660/rl168841.pdf) in the three months through June came as the company branched into new ventures including crypto. The company’s new chief executive, Kevin McGurn, announced at a conference call about the earnings that after a yearlong effort to expand into online betting and crypto, the company would be refocusing on social media. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2026, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7922 "2026-08-12T01:13:04Z")
RFK claims he’s not allowed to vote because a judge told him he’s homeless. > **[Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)](https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mstkyylkc62k)** > > RFK Jr claims a judge declared he "has no legal residence" so he has "no state where I can legally vote right 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:** [August 12, 2026, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7923 "2026-08-12T01:32:23Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Given what’s happened with the current mal/misadmninistration, I think “We’re going to need another Timothy!” would be appropriate. Actual quote is: [“We’re going to need another Timmy!”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsGnYuQwsOI) ---
**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 12, 2026, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7924 "2026-08-12T11:49:13Z")
[Now America’s killing civilians in Yemen.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/pentagon-tells-congress-us-military-234847972.html) > [@](#): > > The Pentagon told Congress this week that the U.S. military’s airstrikes against Houthi militants in Yemen last year resulted in 153 civilians killed and another 243 individuals injured in the Middle Eastern nation. > > Following Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea early last year, President Trump [authorized airstrikes against the rebels](https://thehill.com/policy/international/5196985-us-launches-decisive-and-powerful-strikes-against-houthis-in-yemen/) in March in an operation dubbed “Operation Rough Rider.” > > Three operations during that stretch “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm, the Pentagon assessed in its 12-page report that was sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), which was obtained by The Hill. Rough Rider? For someone as homophobic as war criminal Hegseth, he sure does like using expressions that are practically leaping out of the closet. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7925 "2026-08-12T16:49:10Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Rough Rider? For someone as homophobic as war criminal Hegseth, he sure does like using expressions that are practically leaping out of the closet. This operation is studded for his pleasure. 😛 ---
**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:** [August 12, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7926 "2026-08-12T18:11:55Z")
The next reel of the dystopian sci-fi movie we’re living in unfolds: > **[AP Exclusive: ICE plans to give officers gloves that can deliver painful...](https://apnews.com/article/ice-electric-shock-gloves-85ff746d3e0ee5f39e7a9a3f1f576252)** > > Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks that are intended to gain compliance from combative individuals. > [Immigration](https://apnews.com/hub/immigration) and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to gain compliance from combative individuals. > > ICE [plans to spend](https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-enforcement-dhs-ice-deportation-9eef2e24fede3e4d593be462cbcf31f2) up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents by March, according to a [notice published Monday](https://apfs-cloud.dhs.gov/record/74524/public-print/) by the Department of Homeland Security. > > The devices are known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky. They have been used in recent years by some jails and police departments. > > … > > Compliant Technologies says the devices function as a normal pair of patrol gloves until officers press a switch to activate their electrical mode. The gloves must be applied directly to someone’s skin to deliver a pain stimulus that typically helps an officer gain compliance within seconds, according to the company. > … I’ll bet it does. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7927 "2026-08-12T18:58:46Z")
Wine box Pirro has convenied a Special Grand Jury in DC per WAPO. Smacks of some attempt to regain favor with Shit-for-Brains. Info on Special Grand Jury > **[ ](https://www.google.com/share.google?q=RlOpbWmobghdUtZ4c)** ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7928 "2026-08-12T19:01:06Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The next reel of the dystopian sci-fi movie we’re living in unfolds: Gene Roddenberry would have been impressed. It sounds like the technology used in the _Agonzer_ in the Star Trek “Mirror, Mirror” episode, or the _Stim_ used in his one-episode _Genesis II_ ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7929 "2026-08-12T19:08:20Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > Wine box Pirro has convenied a Special Grand Jury in DC per WAPO. Perhaps she’s going to charge the entire Trump administration with a variety of crimes, including conspiracy. I can dream! ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7930 "2026-08-12T20:38:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Gene Roddenberry would have been impressed. It sounds like the technology used in the _Agonzer_ in the Star Trek “Mirror, Mirror” episode, or the _Stim_ used in his one-episode _Genesis II_ The authoritarian mindset _adores_ “agonizers”. ---
**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 12, 2026, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7931 "2026-08-12T20:59:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It sounds like the technology used in the _Agonzer_ in the Star Trek “Mirror, Mirror” episode That’s why I prefaced the link to the story in my post above with a link to _Your agonizer, please_. > [@Sherrerd](#): > > The authoritarian mindset _adores_ “agonizers”. Until they’re used on them, of course. Cue my mantra. _This is what they wanted for others. This is what they voted for others. This is what they got for themselves._ ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7932 "2026-08-12T21:09:11Z")
I think a lot of use would like to see some turnabout and fair play. Not that I want to see Stephen Miller being hit with an Agonizer. But I might not mind _hearing_ about it. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2026, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7933 "2026-08-12T21:16:30Z")
Karoline Leavitt is out. > **[White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt leaving role, Trump announces |...](https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/12/politics/karoline-leavitt-leaving-white-house)** > > White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave her role at the end of August, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7934 "2026-08-12T21:35:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Gene Roddenberry would have been impressed. It sounds like the technology used in the _Agonzer_ in the Star Trek “Mirror, Mirror” episode, or the _Stim_ used in his one-episode _Genesis II_ Yeah;the first response to that story I saw elsewhere was somebody posting a link to a clip of the “your agonizer, please” scene. ---
**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 12, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7935 "2026-08-12T21:45:54Z")
I did that about 21 hours ago. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7936 "2026-08-12T21:53:41Z")
Congrats. Here’s your cookie. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7937 "2026-08-12T22:07:52Z")
Good riddance, and don’t let your necklace get caught in the slamming door behind you. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7938 "2026-08-12T22:29:47Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I’ve been documenting the Republican Party’s dubious crusade against the SPLC, the organization known for assisting law enforcement with investigating racist extremist groups. The Trump administration’s recent [indictment of the SPLC](https://www.ms.now/news/doj-rushed-indictment-of-splc-according-to-whistleblower-reports) on allegations the group defrauded investors by financing the extremist groups they claim to fight has ramped up that attack and fits [a long tradition](https://www.ms.now/news/news-analysis/splc-indictment-doj-maga-racist-extremism-ku-klux-klan) of white conservatives [denying](https://www.ms.now/opinion/the-maga-movements-kkk-revisionism-is-revealing) the origins, existence or extremism of racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. (The SPLC has denied any wrongdoing.) > **[Ex-Southern Poverty Law Center official charged in broader criminal case...](https://apnews.com/article/splc-heidi-beirich-justice-department-06de95e24ef62a274dc8b5643e3f928d)** > > Newly unsealed court records show that a former Southern Poverty Law Center official has been charged in the Department of Justice’s broader criminal case against the Alabama-based civil rights group. ---
**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 12, 2026, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7939 "2026-08-12T23:10:05Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Congrats. Here’s your cookie. Thanks! I see it right down in the lower left corner. But why did you take a bite out of it? [Stop getting my hopes up like that!](https://www.aol.com/articles/marco-rubio-says-spent-90-165509000.html) > [@](#): > > U.S. Secretary of State [Marco Rubio](https://people.com/marco-rubio-11997451) recalled a time aboard Air Force One when he spent “about 90 minutes” trying to figure out if someone had died on the plane. > > During a Tuesday, Aug. 11, interview on _[The Katie Miller Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09XnM4XHjuk)_, Rubio shared that he once monitored someone during a trip back to the U.S. from China. However, he was unable to tell if the person, whom he didn’t identify by name but said was on one of the couches in the conference room, was sleeping or deceased. > > “And for a significant period of this flight, it was debatable whether this person had passed away or not,” the 55-year-old politician said. > > “I couldn’t see chest movement,” he continued. “I couldn’t establish a consistent breathing pattern in the individual. But I also didn’t want to wake them up on the one hand, or discover a dead body on the other.” [Oh, yeah; he’s going to tear the whole place down.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-administration-set-to-spend-at-least-900-million-on-white-house-construction-100001256.html) > [@](#): > > The Trump administration plans to spend at least $900 million for construction projects on the White House grounds, a significantly larger price tag than has been previously reported and one that would be covered primarily by taxpayers, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post. > > Instead of securing money directly from Congress, the records show, the administration has pieced together funding from other agencies and private donors and directed it to a little-known account that typically holds a few million dollars for routine maintenance of the executive mansion. > > Confidential contracts and related planning documents indicate that the administration plans to use money in that account for White House “modernization projects” - the administration’s term for President Donald Trump’s planned overhaul of the property, at the center of which is a gilded East Wing ballroom. > > Together, the records reveal in the greatest detail yet how the Trump administration has sidestepped Congress and shielded visibility into what would become the most expensive overhaul of the White House in more than 80 years. All open and above board. _Snort._ [Canadians want the felon’s ambassador to go home.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/thousands-sign-petition-calling-expulsion-174724275.html) > [@](#): > > More than 60,000 Canadians are backing an effort to remove U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra from the country, accusing him of undermining relations between the neighboring countries and interfering in Canadian politics. > > The [online petition](https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Sign/e-7531) calls on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to declare Hoekstra “persona non grata” and seeks his removal as President Trump’s ambassador to Canada. > > It accuses Hoekstra of “making repeated interventions in Canadian political discourse inconsistent with diplomatic protocol” and normalizing Trump’s push to make Canada the 51st U.S. state. > > The petition, which was created by a woman from Calgary, quickly garnered support, nearly doubling its signature count in a 24-hour period this week. Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, is expected to present it to the House of Commons this fall. > > Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman from Michigan and a longtime Trump ally, has repeatedly found himself at the center of tensions between the U.S. and Canada. > > In June, [he said](https://thehill.com/policy/international/5906117-trump-hoekstra-canada-51st-state/) Trump and Carney should have a “great discussion” about Canada becoming the 51st state after Trump repeatedly floated bringing Canada into the U.S. [The felon’s war on Transgender people continues.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-administration-bans-federal-medicaid-223145495.html) > [@](#): > > The Trump administration on Tuesday finalized a rule that will bar Medicaid from covering gender identity healthcare for children enrolled in the government’s low-income insurance program. > > The new policy prohibits states from using federal Medicaid funds to pay for any gender identity care for enrollees under 18, marking the administration’s latest effort to restrict youth access to transgender healthcare. > > President Donald Trump celebrated the move in a Truth Social post, touting it as necessary to crack down on “barbaric surgeries and practices, which result in unthinkable and irreversible harm to their young bodies.” > > “Just think about all the young, innocent, and perhaps confused children who will be spared!” Trump wrote on social media. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2026, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/7940 "2026-08-12T23:16:51Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Oh, yeah; he’s going to tear the whole place down. Cf. > [@POLL: Yea, Nay, or Something else- Trump will bulldoze the entire White House to the ground](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-yea-nay-or-something-else-trump-will-bulldoze-the-entire-white-house-to-the-ground/1031590): > > The premise is that he will do this before he leaves office, however that happens. Multiple selections allowed. Agree, disagree, dispute, quibble, object, or discuss however you want. [poll](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-yea-nay-or-something-else-trump-will-bulldoze-the-entire-white-house-to-the-ground/1031590/1) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298.md?page=396) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298.md?page=398)