# 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:** 460
**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:** [September 29, 2026, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9181 "2026-09-29T14:30:38Z")
I just want to point out that the quotation above the story is not an actual quotation from anyone in the administration. It’s just a humorous counterpoint, because it’s what an even halfway respectable government official would have said. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2026, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9182 "2026-09-29T14:40:03Z")
First sentence from a story in Daily Kos: > Everything is terrible in Trump’s America, but it’s important not to forget that it is also very stupid. It continues: > It turns out that when you let a mush-brained despot like President Donald Trump back into the White House, you get the sort of tacky despot behavior like exiling the ex-girlfriend of one of the despot’s large adult sons—himself no doubt a burgeoning baby despot—to a faraway land. And then, downstream from that genius move, you get a random weirdo telling a Western democracy that America can just take them out any time we feel like it. > Things have been a bit busy, foreign policy-wise, so you may have forgotten that late last year, Donald Trump Jr. had to get rid of his one-time paramour, Kimberly Guilfoyle, because he started dating Bettina Anderson. Junior’s fairytale romance with Anderson culminated in the way every middle-aged grifty couple dreams of: a wedding **[financed](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/15/800098646/news/democrats-demand-answers-on-don-jr-s-wedding-gift-from-russia/)** by a Russian oligarch. > > For being sidelined by the eldest Trump son, former Fox News star Guilfoyle was rewarded with becoming **[ambassador](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/5/2352292/news/Don-Jr-s-ex-literally-dances-her-way-into-cushy-diplomatic-gig/)** to Greece—which honestly is a much better deal than having to date Don Jr., let’s be honest. … … … > It turns out that in March, at a dinner chock-full of U.S. and Greek officials, Guilfoyle got into an argument with Greece’s energy minister, Stavros Papastavrou. Her winning move, in front of all the dinner guests, was to reference the fact that the Romanian government was collapsing and to tell Papastavrou, “We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here.” > > Chat, is it good diplomacy to threaten to overthrow a duly-elected government because you got into a spat at dinner? > > Spoiler alert: It’s terrible diplomacy, but it is well in keeping with the way this administration acts. > **[Why is Don Jr.’s ex threatening to overthrow Greece?](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/29/800104931/world/why-is-don-jr-s-ex-threatening-to-overthrow-greece/)** > > Everything is terrible in Trump’s America, but it’s important not to forget that it is also very stupid. It turns out that when you let a mush-brained despot like President Donald Trump back into the… ---
**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:** [September 29, 2026, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9183 "2026-09-29T19:18:22Z")
From the Daily Kos article that @CalMeacham quoted: > [@CalMeacham](#): > > Her winning move, in front of all the dinner guests, was to reference the fact that the Romanian government was collapsing and to tell Papastavrou, “We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here.” “Nice country you got here. Shame if anything happened to it.” Is there an ancient Greek term for “government run by penny-ante Mafia wannabees?” ---
**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:** [September 29, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9184 "2026-09-29T19:31:31Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Is there an ancient Greek term for “government run by penny-ante Mafia wannabees?” > **[Kakistocracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakistocracy)** > > Kakistocracy (/ˌkækɪˈstɒkrəsi/ KAK-ih-STOK-rə-see) is government by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous people.: 54  The word was coined as early as the seventeenth century and derives from two Greek words, kákistos (κάκιστος, 'worst') and krátos (κράτος, 'rule'), together > meaning 'government by the worst people'. The earliest use of the word dates to the seventeenth century, in Paul Gosnold's A sermon preached at the publique fast the ninth day of Aug. 1644 at St. Maries, Oxford, ... ---
**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:** [September 29, 2026, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9185 "2026-09-29T19:34:49Z")
“Kakistocracy” absolutely fits Trump and his toadies, but I was (tongue-in-cheek) hoping for a term which more closely fits their blatant strong-arm mobster tactics. Kleptocracy is probably a bit closer. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9186 "2026-09-29T19:58:05Z")
That word sounds a lot like Kaka-stocracy (kids also spell it “caca” 💩) Also very appropriate for this gummint. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9187 "2026-09-29T20:07:17Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Is there an ancient Greek term for “government run by penny-ante Mafia wannabees?” Athens. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9188 "2026-09-29T23:38:12Z")
[Judge find the dysministration contemptible.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/judge-finds-trump-admin-contempt-151338291.html) > [@](#): > > The Trump administration was [found](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15867241/715/jop-v-us-department-of-homeland-security/) in contempt of court Friday for [wrongfully deporting](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/first-at-tpm-teen-deported-twice-this-year-in-violation-of-multiple-court-orders) a young Salvadoran man last month for the second time — after he had already been unlawfully deported in March, then returned to the U.S., before being removed again. > > U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled that the administration’s conduct violated three separate orders that she had issued in the long-running class action settlement involving unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the United States. The case has been a [flash point](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/a-brutal-ending-to-one-of-the-worst-trump-ii-cases) for Trump administration [defiance](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-wrongfully-deported-more-than-100-asylum-seekers) of court orders, with some 100 asylum seekers having been [wrongfully deported](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-confirms-91-wrongful-deportations-of-asylum-seekers) in violation of the settlement agreement approved by Gallagher. > > For the past four weeks, the administration and class counsel were in a standoff. The administration conceded the removal was in error and was prepared to return the young man — referred to in court only as “E.L.A.” — to the United States. But it was opposed to demands by his lawyers that he be released upon his return and not deported again until his asylum application was heard. [Junior Dictator Vance rails against fraud with, you guessed it, fraudulent stats.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/jd-vance-found-using-bogus-104722560.html) > [@](#): > > JD Vance’s claim that his White House task force uncovered $250 billion in fraud in just a few months is based on questionable accounting, a new report has revealed. > > The vice president has made fighting fraud a major part of his remit since Donald Trump put him in charge of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud in March. Earlier this month, Vance, 42, boasted at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas: “We found $250 billion of fraud just since the president made me the fraud czar.” > > But a New York Times [analysis](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/us/politics/white-house-fraud-task-force.html) of the administration’s own records found some figures being used by Vance to show his task force’s successes are inflated, difficult to substantiate, or based on work that began before Trump returned to office—which one expert described as a “sleight of hand.” > > The White House says the administration has “uncovered” $245.7 billion, stopped another $62.9 billion annually, and enforced $59.1 billion through measures including criminal charges, settlements and penalties. But, unlike Vance’s boast, the ledger counts activity stretching back to January 2025 rather than the March 2026 creation of his task force, the Times reports. [The felon really doesn’t like Canada.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/motorcycles-booze-us-ban-1-040058166.html) > [@](#): > > WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles. > > The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880 billion worth of a two-way annual trade between the two northern neighbors. But it marks another ratcheting up of President Donald Trump’s second-term trade war with America’s longtime ally and trading partner. > > The import ban "certainly won’t do anything to help the trade tensions between the United States and Canada,‘’ said trade attorney Patrick Childress, a partner at Holland & Knight and a former U.S. trade official. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9189 "2026-09-30T03:18:05Z")
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) clears the way for Trump to demolish the Kennedy Center > **[Lone GOP senator blocks bipartisan effort to prevent Trump from demolishing...](https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/29/politics/mike-lee-kennedy-center-bill)** > > A bipartisan effort aimed at protecting the Kennedy Center from demolition was blocked on the Senate floor Monday night by a lone Republican senator. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9190 "2026-09-30T03:21:51Z")
How many iconic venues in the United States has the felon-in-the-oval now either actually destroyed, announced he will destroy, or allowed to be destroyed? And let’s face it. The White House will be gone within two years, so we might as well add that to the list. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9191 "2026-09-30T04:05:33Z")
"In news from Liberty Island today, when tarps were removed at the base of the Statue of Liberty, the iconic poem by Emma Lazarus welcoming immigrants had been removed, and replaced with a gilded plaque proclaiming, “America First, no huddled masses allowed, stay in your own shit hole countries!” “Also unveiled was the plan for the proposed $850 million renovation of the Statue of America, as it will be known forever more. Funding for this project will come from the Department of Education, the CDC, and FEMA.” [![](https://i.ibb.co/cc8Ntfrx/file-00000000653481f9ab6d7be8574f3039.png) ](https://i.ibb.co/cc8Ntfrx/file-00000000653481f9ab6d7be8574f3039.png) ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9192 "2026-09-30T04:34:03Z")
Liberty obviously belongs in the same woke, unamerican lexicon as qwerty, puberty, poverty, fraternerty and egalitery. Dem woides just gotta go. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9193 "2026-09-30T05:00:48Z")
“Kakistocracy” has another meaning for Dutch and Afrikaans speakers - both the usual English meaning with the Greek root “_kakistos_” and an informal meaning using the Dutch root “_kakjen_”, or “shit”, hence “rule by the shit”. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > That word sounds a lot like Kaka-stocracy Quite apt, in both cases, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9194 "2026-09-30T05:40:08Z")
[Guess who hates the felon. America! America dot gov, that is.](https://www.aol.com/articles/trump-touts-america-gov-government-151833000.html) > [@](#): > > WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has lauded its revamped website [America.gov](http://America.gov) as a way to simplify Americans’ access to information and services scattered across a plethora of agency sites, but President Donald Trump probably won’t like some of the answers his new site says are sourced from government information. > > Asking the site — which says it’s sourced via [artificial intelligence](https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence) from “official government sources” — questions about who won the 2020 election or about the name of the federal department that operates out of the Pentagon yields answers contrary to those Trump himself frequently proclaims. > > As Trump was still speaking at Tuesday’s launch event, however, the site began modifying its answers. Asked again about the 2020 election, it replied that it couldn’t answer “political questions," a response it also gave to inquiries about whether Trump had been [impeached](https://apnews.com/article/trump-impeachment-vote-capitol-siege-0a6f2a348a6e43f27d5e1dc486027860) or [convicted of felony charges](https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0). [Looks like we’re really screwed.](https://www.aol.com/articles/nearly-60-years-away-parasite-130000000.html) > [@](#): > > In June 2026, a routine call from a rancher in South Texas set off alarms across agricultural agencies nationwide. The distress wasn’t about market prices or the weather. It was about a parasitic insect that the United States had not seen in its livestock for nearly six decades: the New World screwworm. > > The initial report, confirmed by the USDA on June 3rd, involved a three-week-old beef calf in Zavala County, just 50 miles from the Mexico border. The rancher had noticed larvae in a fresh wound, textbook signs for those familiar with NWS, but a scenario that hasn’t confronted American producers for generations. The calf survived after treatment, but the incident triggered a cascade of concern and rapid response. > > That calf was only the start. By June 8th, federal and state authorities had confirmed four more cases. Two additional calves, one in Zavala County and another in neighboring La Salle County, tested positive, while a dog in Lea County, New Mexico, and a goat in Gillespie County, Texas, brought the parasite’s reach well beyond its initial detection point. Each case widened the scope of vigilance. > > New World screwworm isn’t a typical livestock pest. The adult flies lay **[eggs](https://a-z-animals.com/animals/comparison/snake-eggs-vs-lizard-eggs-differences/?utm_campaign=yahoo&utm_source=yahoo_articles&utm_medium=in_content&utm_content=1619883)** in open wounds on warm-blooded animals, cattle, sheep, goats, wildlife, and occasionally even pets and people. The larvae feed on living tissue, causing distress, infection, and potentially death if undetected. While humans rarely face serious risk, the economic threat to livestock is real and immediate. [I’ve completely lost faith in the spineless so-called supreme court now.](https://www.aol.com/articles/supreme-court-allows-trump-third-190829000.html) > [@](#): > > WASHINGTON — The [Supreme Court](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court) on Tuesday removed obstacles to the [Trump administration](https://www.nbcnews.com/trump-administration) deporting certain immigrants to “third countries” where they have no connections. > > The justices, with the court’s three liberals dissenting, granted an emergency request filed by the government seeking to block an appeals court ruling that said the current process is unlawful because the affected people are not given a proper chance to raise concerns about safety risks in violation of federal immigration law. > > In the brief unsigned order, the court also said it would hear oral arguments in December and issue a definitive ruling on the legal questions raised in the litigation. December, huh? What are they waiting for, the deportees to die in those hellish prisons so they can then say nobody has standing to sue the governmen? How I wish I were joking with that comment. [I’m surprised she didn’t just shoot him to “teach him a lesson”](https://www.aol.com/articles/kristi-noem-files-divorce-bryon-181436000.html) (The formatting is from the original.) > [@](#): > > **Kristi Noem** is stepping into a new chapter. > > Six months after photos of her husband **Bryon Noem** [wearing women’s clothing and fake breasts](https://www.eonline.com/news/1430400/kristi-noem-reacts-to-husband-bryon-noem-fake-boobs-photos?query=kristi%2520noem) surfaced, the former Department of Homeland Security head has filed for divorce, according to court documents reviewed by E! News. > > Kristi, 54, cited irreconcilable differences as the cause for their breakup, per the docs, which were filed in South Dakota Sept. 28. > > E! News has reached out to attorneys for Kristi and Bryon for comment but has not yet heard back. > > News of the couple’s divorce after 34 years of marriage comes months after photos of what appeared to be Bryon dressed in women’s clothing and donning fake breasts were published by [the _Daily Mail_](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15685877/kristi-noem-husband-bryon-crossdressing-pictures-south-dakota.html) March 31, with the outlet alleging that the 56-year-old had been living a double life where he chatted in online fetish forums with models. > > At the time, a rep for Kristi—who shares daughters **Kassidy** , 32,and **Kennedy** , 29,and son **Booker** , 24, with Bryon—said the former South Dakota Governor was “devastated” by the images. [The felon’s working very well on his Taliban chops, and by that I mean emulating them.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/trump-border-wall-construction-cut-192932622.html) > [@](#): > > An ancient ground carving that was [severely damaged by the administration’s border wall construction](https://tucson.com/news/local/border/article_20b0276a-2ed2-4f13-8e91-93dd9fb669b5.html) was created before Stonehenge and Egypt’s oldest pyramid, according to recently publicized research. > > The Las Playas Intaglio, a giant fish carved into the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, is now [considered the oldest example](https://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=870459&p=0&view=issueViewer) in the Americas of a [geoglyphic, the ancient art form](https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-a-geoglyph.html) that is carved into or drawn on the ground. > > In April, contractors hired by the Trump administration to make way for a second wall along the Arizona-Mexico border “scraped” a 50-foot swath through the ancient carving, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which documented the damage. > > The intaglio on the ground of the ancestral homeland of the Tohono O’odham and other Indigenous tribes is estimated to be about 2,000 years older than [Egypt’s first pyramid](https://www.nbcnews.com/video/hidden-planet-inside-the-pharaohs-secret-tunnels-44576835595) and to have been created about 1,500 years before the first construction of [Stonehenge](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/secrets-stonehenge-stone-revealed-after-centuries-debate-n1235162) and 4,000 years before [Peru’s Nazca Lines](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/researchers-discover-100-new-ancient-designs-perus-nazca-lines-rcna62533), [researchers have found](https://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=870459&p=30&view=issueViewer). > > The formerly 272-foot carving had originally been thought to be about 1,000 years old. But the latest research dates the art’s creation to at least 6,500 years ago, and possibly as much as 7,500 years ago. > > That age emphasizes “the significance of this site and the parallel great misfortune resulting from its damage,” the researchers said in an [article published in The SAA Archaeological Record.](https://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=870459&p=0&view=issueViewer) [It’s like _Old McDonald’s_! War on military, war on education, war on professors, war war everywhere!](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/hegseth-directs-military-academies-stop-011300288.html) > [@](#): > > Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a [memo](https://media.defense.gov/2026/Sep/29/2004008474/-1/-1/1/REFOCUSING-THE-MILITARY-SERVICE-ACADEMIES-ON-WARFIGHTER-EDUCATION.PDF?ftag=YHF4eb9d17) Tuesday directing institutions like the Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Academy in Annapolis to immediately stop granting tenure to civilian faculty, in Hegseth’s latest change to military higher education. > > “Tenure often leads to academic stagnation, faculty complacency, and institutional inability to adapt to emerging needs,” he wrote. “Additionally, it contributes to curriculum that drifts from the mission of educating our warfighters to the research priorities of the tenured academics.” > > Hegseth said his goal is to “address the structural mechanisms that have allowed civilian academic norms to dilute our focus on lethality.” Instead of that malarkey, how about we _address the strucural mechanisms that have allowed_ that war criminal to hold the position he is currently disgracing? [Did I say war on the military? Someone really is jealous of stellar\* service members.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/exclusive-hegseth-double-cuts-generals-133046359.html) > [@](#): > > War Secretary [Pete Hegseth](https://foxnews.com/category/person/pete-hegseth) will announce plans to reduce by 20% the number of positions reserved for generals and admirals during his State of the Force address on Wednesday. > > Hegseth approved reduction plans for the Army, Navy, Air Force and the military’s joint pool earlier this month, according to memos seen by Fox News Digital. The services were directed to implement the plans and complete the reductions by Jan. 1, 2027. > > Wednesday’s address in Quantico, Va. is expected to lay out Hegseth’s priorities for the military in the year ahead, with the reduction in senior leadership positions among the changes he will unveil. > > The new target doubles the 10% overall reduction in general and flag officer positions Hegseth ordered last year as part of his effort to streamline the military’s senior ranks. That earlier directive separately called for a 20% reduction in active-duty four-star positions and a 20% reduction in [National Guard](https://foxnews.com/category/us/military/national-guard) general officers. > > The latest reductions apply to billets — positions designated for generals and admirals — rather than an across-the-board removal of 20% of the officers currently serving in those ranks, a War Department source told Fox News Digital. > > At least some of the positions will be downgraded rather than eliminated altogether. In a Sept. 16 memo approving reductions to the military’s joint pool, Hegseth directed officials to establish O-6 requirements for general and flag officer positions identified for downgrade, allowing colonels and Navy captains to fill those jobs. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2026, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9195 "2026-09-30T10:03:52Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > The felon really doesn’t like Canada. Of course not. Canada is foiling his plans to rule North America. Yes, back in early 2025, shortly after he ascended the throne; excuse me, I mean the presidency, we were worried. “51st state” bullshit, and all that. Those of us with guns (yes, contrary to what right-wing Americans believe, many of us actually own guns), stocked up with ammo. We were just shy of panicking. But in the time since, we’re not panicking. We’re looking at Donnie and saying, “whoop-dee-doo.” The guy who couldn’t make Iran, of all places, succumb? The guy who claimed he ran Venezuela, even though he doesn’t? The guy who is threatening Cuba, because he’s got a voter base in Florida, even though he cannot be re-elected? And he thinks he can take Canada by economic means? I’d love to play poker against Trump, because his tells betray everything he wants to do. Nothing is secret, everything is transparent, just as he promised; but he’s letting on what the rest of us in the free world need to know. He announces that he’s going to break Canada economically? Canada just goes out and finds new trade partners. He bans Canadian alcohol? Canadian Club whisky advertised itself as “the best in the house in 87 lands.” Now I guess it’s 86. Whoop-de-doo indeed; Hiram Walker’s distillery probably won’t even notice. I am encouraged by my individual friends and family in the US, who constantly tell me, “Ignore Trump, we still like Canada and Canadians.” That’s great, and I hope to catch up with them soon, in person. Maybe even in the US. But overall, it’s the resolve that Canadians have shown. President Trump has done something that no Canadian Prime Minister has been able to do in recent decades: united Canadians. Yes, Ontarians, and British Columbians and Quebecers, and Nova Scotians, despite their intra-country squabbles, are uniting against Trump’s efforts to kill Canada. We have a sovereign country. And we intend to keep it that way. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2026, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9196 "2026-09-30T11:03:41Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > “Because of tariffs, we are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars of profits. It’s one of the reasons I can offer, if Republicans win the House and the Senate, $5,000 to every adult. Once again, Trump can’t do math. Let’s say we believe the “Hundreds of billions” BS. Okay, sure, but the cost of his “dividend” will be[over $1.2 Trillion](https://www.crfb.org/blogs/5000-dividends-would-cost-12-trillion). ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9197 "2026-09-30T12:51:05Z")
Isn’t making such an offer itself illegal, as in election interference, and absolutely not connected to his official duties as president? ---
**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:** [September 30, 2026, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9198 "2026-09-30T13:06:37Z")
It very well might be. Would you like to reach out to Todd Blanche or shall I? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9199 "2026-09-30T14:07:27Z")
Every time I see that name, I read it as Toady Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/9200 "2026-09-30T14:16:23Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Asking the site — which says it’s sourced via [artificial intelligence](https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence) from “official government sources” — questions about who won the 2020 election or about the name of the federal department that operates out of the Pentagon yields answers contrary to those Trump himself frequently proclaims. Well, there’s your problem! If it was sourced via _Super Intelligence_, it would have the “right” answers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298.md?page=459) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298.md?page=461)