# 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:** 402
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8021 "2026-08-17T03:39:03Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > 1. Who has done the most for America in the history of the universe? > 2. Who should get a third term? > 3. Who is mistretated by the fake news? OBAMA! Right..? šŸ¤£ šŸ¤£ Five letters! ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8022 "2026-08-17T04:20:08Z")
This video crystalizes a thought I have been having for a while. Her argument is that what his handlers are doing to Trump qualifies as elder abuse, but it doesnā€™t change the fact that he is still as evil and stupid a man as ever lived. I can work up some sympathy for him for being in a horrible situation, while also recognizing that if ever anyone deserved it, Trump does. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/pAxuRV7sA4Q/maxresdefault.jpg "The Leopards Are Eating Trump's Face: A Blog & Discussion Featuring @charlottevstyranny's Writing") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAxuRV7sA4Q) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8023 "2026-08-17T04:51:53Z")
No, Biden. Five letters. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8024 "2026-08-17T05:43:05Z")
Of course! Biden! Fox News! Done the most for America! šŸ˜ƒ ---
**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:** [August 17, 2026, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8025 "2026-08-17T05:43:41Z")
Trump is wearing some sort of contraption on his ass. For someone so obsessed with his appearance, does he not ever look in a mirror? > **[Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)](https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mt7gd3nyjk2y)** > > Seriously, what is going on with Trumpā€™s rear end here? It looks like he has some sort of contraption back there ---
**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:** [August 17, 2026, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8026 "2026-08-17T05:50:30Z")
Maybe he decided to start a trend of having a robotic da-donk-a-donk butt? Ok, yeah, I got nuttinā€™. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8027 "2026-08-17T06:00:10Z")
He could resign and has enough brain cells and agency left to know whether he wants to do so, and to do so. He doesnā€™t want to, and he wonā€™t. ---
**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 17, 2026, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8028 "2026-08-17T06:13:39Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Maybe he decided to start a trend of having a robotic da-donk-a-donk butt? ā€œI have the poppinā€™est whooty anyone has ever seen. Some very respected PAWGs have been coming to the White House with tears in their eyes, saying ā€œSir, weā€™re so glad youā€™ve created so many jobs, none of us can work in porn anymore, a year and a half ago we had the biggest roundest white butts in the country, but thereā€™s nothing that can compare to your truckā€, you know the truck, they call it a dumptruck, nobody knows that dumptruck means the ass.ā€ ---
**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 17, 2026, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8029 "2026-08-17T09:17:51Z")
[The war criminals are going ashore.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/killing-hundreds-boat-strikes-us-070322387.html) > [@](#): > > MEXICO CITY (AP) ā€” Hundreds of people [have been killed](https://apnews.com/article/trump-military-boat-strikes-cocaine-pacific-d1f80c8ed5a393461afe6c62eb1d1dfa) in the year since the U.S. military [began bombing boats](https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-maduro-strike-caribbean-drug-trafficking-trump-1061debe2f983ef7bc9666d3f002b3a0) it accused of ferrying drugs off Latin Americaā€™s Caribbean and Pacific coasts. Now, the Trump administration says it is seeking to extend that lethal campaign to land, pursuing deals that would put U.S. forces on the ground in allied nations across the region. > > President Donald Trumpā€™s defense secretary, [Pete Hegseth](https://apnews.com/article/latin-america-drug-cartels-military-hegseth-trump-f225f1acfba313a3ffc03d8ba04c628b), announced last week during a visit to Panama that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had [agreed to allow the U.S.](https://apnews.com/article/pete-hegseth-colombia-panama-cartels-b77cf42c8b2126283939611f5ec13af4) to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil, following Ecuador, which [launched similar missions](https://apnews.com/article/us-ecuador-military-operation-drugs-organized-crime-43cd71e72057273437075429dcdc20c5) with the U.S. in March. Guatemala, however, has denied reaching such an agreement. > > It will be ā€œlike you saw with the strikes on the drug boats,ā€ Hegseth said during a military drill in the jungle in Panama. ā€œSame effect on land. And so weā€™re working with Ecuador. Weā€™re working with Colombia. Weā€™re working with partners to bring the fight to the (designated terrorist organizations) on land.ā€ Nice to know the war criminalā€™s announcement is trustworthy. Guatemala says they have not reached such an agreement. ---
**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 17, 2026, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8030 "2026-08-17T09:33:55Z")
[Trump blames vandals for damaged grass in the same spot where he held his big July 4 celebration](https://apnews.com/article/trump-vandalism-claim-world-war-ii-memorial-f37b3fe1daae73d00f4faad29a5df80e?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us) > WASHINGTON (AP) ā€” President Donald Trump on Sunday said vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial ā€” in the same spot where Trump had a stage built and hosted crowds for [his July 4 celebration](https://apnews.com/article/america-250-weekend-heat-united-states-1eeaf21e91ed583595611251649db93e). > > Trump made the accusation in a social media post without saying why he believes itā€™s the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. You know, with accusations like this and blaming the Reflecting Pool mess on ā€œvandalsā€ Trump reminds me a lot of the USSR under Stalin, where failures caused by the government were blamed on ā€œ[wreckers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrecking_(crime))ā€ deliberately sabotaging the USSR. ---
**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 17, 2026, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8031 "2026-08-17T12:22:57Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > This video crystalizes a thought I have been having for a while. Her argument is that what his handlers are doing to Trump qualifies as elder abuse, but it doesnā€™t change the fact that he is still as evil and stupid a man as ever lived. [Paul Krugman addresses this in his Substack post today:](https://substack.com/home/post/p-211441723) > ā€¦ > Obviously we have a seriously mentally ill, mentally deficient guy with his finger on the button. The president of the United States is clearly dissociating, Iā€™ve been calling it sundowning because I personally saw sundowning during my fatherā€™s awful last year. > > Trump is not in full possession of his faculties, and he is obsessing about things that are really just kind of remnant ego trips. > > ā€¦ > > And one of the things we learn about in studying how authoritarian regimes behave is, first of all, that the leader actually can be possibly the worst informed person in the nation because nobody dares to tell him bad news. Weā€™re hearing this a lot about Putin, that he doesnā€™t know how badly his war is going. Well, Trump in many ways probably still doesnā€™t understand how badly _his_ war is going. > > ā€¦ > > This is the problem with authoritarian regimes. It goes with the related problem with authoritarian regimes, which is that they have a single point of failure. You elevate one person to a position of untouchable authority, and if that person loses it, that person is sundowning, there is no recourse. > > ā€¦ > > So we have this mix of leader principle, _FĆ¼hrerprinzip_. Yes, I think weā€™re allowed to use the original German here. Information blackout at the top because nobody wants to tell the leader bad news. And incompetence as a general principle throughout the government. > ā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8032 "2026-08-17T14:50:32Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Trump has decided to scale back the scheduled Joint Military Exercises with South Korea because they didnā€™t support him in the Iran war. Heā€™s concerned about the cost of military exercises? This is the guy whoā€™s pissing away billions of dollars in Iran and designing completely-unasked-for battleships? Thatā€™s hilarious. By which I mean, incredibly horrifying and stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8033 "2026-08-17T14:58:56Z")
He does not know who his friends and who his enemies are. The consequence is that he is losing his friends (and his country is losing them too) while his enemies gain leverage against him (and his country). He does it because he is stupid, senile, insecure, and craves adulation. Yes, his enemies, which happen to be our enemies too, are better at adulation than we, his friends\*, are. Among other reasons, because being a friend also means saying uncomfortable truths sometimes. But why do the people around him let this happen? They are not so stupid as he is (nobody is!), so they must be traitors. Nuke them from orbit, I say. It is starting to worry me that I return to this quote more and more often in recent weeks. \* Of course I donā€™t mean _his_ friends personally, but the countries that used to have common interests with the USA. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8034 "2026-08-17T15:09:30Z")
the trump admin has been focused on small-dollar fraud cases lately, in part of a continuing ā€˜war on the poorā€™, targeting fraud involving SNAP benefits and Medicaid programs, trying to paint a picture of widespread fraud in order to discredit and ultimately defund those programs. All while trump grifts billions of dollars fraudulently as President. > **[Opinion | What Trump's new obsession with small-dollar fraud reveals](https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-fraud-department-justice-white-collar)** > > Who gets cracked down on, and who gets off easy? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8035 "2026-08-17T15:13:37Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > He does not know who his friends and who his enemies are. He doesnā€™t have friends. Never has. The closest he ever got was Epstein (and he had to pay for that privilege). Thatā€™s part and parcel of his dysfunction. Iā€™m not sure he has ever actually understood the concept. As far as he has ever known (even before his already limited faculties started deteriorating in earnest), it is simply a word people use, not a concept or a reality they actually experience. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8036 "2026-08-17T15:19:40Z")
Yes, to everything you wrote. That is why I added the footnote at the end. Friends is short for common interests. He does not know what his interests are anymore, if he ever knew. Why his brownnosers donā€™t stop him, I donā€™t understand. Whatever they are getting from him, or from Putin, or whoever, it canā€™t be enough. Talk of selling your soul to the devil. For nothing! Worst deal ever. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8037 "2026-08-17T15:21:38Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Talk of selling your soul to the devil. For nothing! Worst deal ever. Why would the Devil buy something heā€™s getting for free? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8038 "2026-08-17T15:24:58Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Friends is short for common interests. Thatā€™s the thing - heā€™s never believed in ā€˜common interestsā€™, either. To the extent people subordinate themselves to him, he believes this is the strong (himself) asserting itself over the weak (everybody else). Heā€™s never understood the concept of friends in the sense of shared interests, either. So, the idea that other countries might have their own interests that may dovetail with US interests is incomprehensible to him, much less that there may be several nations that could have multi-lateral interests. Itā€™s why he prefers bilateral agreements (that he never has any intention of keeping - heā€™s the ā€˜strongā€™ to their ā€˜weakā€™). As for the brownnosers, _cui bono_? Thereā€™s plenty of evidence of massive profits generated from knowing how the US will act before anybody else. They have no reason to stop him, as they are themselves not as bright as they think they are, they profit, they are mostly sociopathic and donā€™t care about other people, and they can take advantage of his (and their own) cupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8039 "2026-08-17T17:08:16Z")
Iā€™ve been watching the whole thing from Canada. Canada is furious with Trumpā€™s America, but still really wants to be friends (partly practical geography, but partly emotional history). But itā€™s thing after thing after thing. The tariff issue has been the top story for daysā€”Iā€™m not sure if the American press is even covering it ([Where do Canada-U.S. trade negotiations stand? Here's a sector-by-sector breakdown | CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-united-states-trade-negotiations-tariffs-9.7309218)). The negotiations are being run by sensible people on both sides, but the Americans keep getting outlandish directives from the Trump administration. Currently, one issue is that the Canadian federal government is trying to negotiate with the madman, but the provinces refuse to rescind their bans on US alcohol. The American threat of 50% tariffs is not helping either side, but here we are. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/8040 "2026-08-17T17:25:53Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > He does not know what his interests are anymore, We know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298.md?page=401) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298.md?page=403)