# 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:** 48
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/941 "2025-12-23T03:56:07Z")
One of the comments to the unredacted file reads > Can you post another example? This file has been this way since 2022 and, so far, no others have been identified as being readable with this trick (or any others). Pretty sure this isn’t the big smoking gun… ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/942 "2025-12-23T03:57:34Z")
I’m not seeing legit news reporting on this yet so I’m doubtful. I do see a victim complaining that their name was not redacted, but I’m not hanging my hat on this video of complete incompetence. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/943 "2025-12-23T04:16:10Z")
Also, there seems to be a missile silo directly in front of the ship’s bridge. I hope everyone on deck remembered to put on their welder’s masks before they launched that bad boy. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/944 "2025-12-23T04:21:40Z")
This appears to be the most fully fleshed out, AI-generated warship the US has ever commissioned. Trump should get full credit for this massive achievement. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/945 "2025-12-23T04:21:52Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > So, turns out that if you highlight and copy the blacked-out pages of the Epstein files on the DOJ website, the paste them into another word processor, you can read them unredacted. Does that work for the redacted images? I tried, but the black outs don’t seem to be a separate layer. Or maybe I just don’t know how to use Gimp (very likely, it’s an overly complicated application). ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/946 "2025-12-23T04:26:06Z")
It might only work on some of the documents. I haven’t tried it myself. I’m also seeing that if you search for “Trump” in the files using the search engine on the site it yields no results, but if you search for “Trump “, with a space after his name, it yields 600+ hits, suggesting that they only blocked that specific search string instead of properly redacting his name. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/947 "2025-12-23T04:45:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > What’s your favorite part? The helipad that’s inaccessible by the crew and which the chopper will fall right off of in choppy seas? The painting of Trump’s assassination attempt on the stern? The flag hovering in midair with no flagpole? The unmanned guns firing at nothing? The fact that the entire vessel looks to be about 10-15 feet wide? I like all of those. That’s very much in line with what he’s fond of doing (screwing up). What I don’t like is the name USS DEFIANT. It should be USS DEFAULT (BB-[9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_9,_Title_11,_United_States_Code)). > [@Smapti](#): > > So, turns out that if you highlight and copy the blacked-out pages of the Epstein files on the DOJ website, the paste them into another word processor, you can read them unredacted. That’s right down there with [“Swirly Face Man”](https://www.interpol.int/ar/1/1/2008/International-paedophile-caught-after-INTERPOL-s-global-manhunt-is-convicted-and-sentenced-for-second-time-by-Thai-court) who got caught for posting ineptly edited videos of himself online. All the police had to do was swirl the face in the opposite direction a tad at a time until it was clear. > [@Coriolanus](#): > > yet figured the fucking government would know better. Where the Hell have you been since January 20, 2025? [After the holidays, prepare for yet another government shutdown.](https://www.aol.com/news/democrats-renew-government-shutdown-threat-110000685.html) > [@](#): > > Senate Democrats are raising the threat of another government shutdown in late January as tensions with President Trump escalate over a series of recent maneuvers by the White House that Democrats say need a forceful response from Capitol Hill. > > Senate Democrats walked away from a potential deal to fund a broad swath of the federal government, including the departments of Defense, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, which make up roughly two-thirds of the discretionary budget, before Congress adjourned for the Christmas recess. > > Democrats cited Trump’s threat to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., a leading government-funded center for atmospheric and climate research, as the reason they couldn’t advance a five-bill spending package before Christmas. > > Had the legislation passed the Senate this past week, it would have given Congress a good chance of funding up to 85 percent to 90 percent of the federal government through September of next year and taken the threat of another shutdown off the table. > > Instead, the shutdown threat remains very much alive, even though Democrats aren’t yet revealing their strategy ahead of the Jan. 30 government funding deadline. Of course, the magatflatearhers will blame the Democrats and their other usual suspects for this, never even for a nanosecond realizing it’s their idol creating the issue. [Just in case you think Veep the Creep isn’t a racist, catch up with the news.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jasmine-crockett-fires-back-jd-155933437.html) > [@](#): > > Rep. **Jasmine Crockett** (D-TX) fired back at Vice President **J.D. Vance** for taking what she deemed a racist dig against her while speaking to young conservatives at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest gathering. > > Vance, who has [been endorsed](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fox-kayleigh-mcenany-cautions-gop-214800491.html) by **Erika Kirk** for president in 2028, said during his keynote speech, “And Jasmine Crockett. Oh, Jasmine Crockett. The record speaks for itself. She wants to be a senator. Though her street girl persona is about as real as her nails.” Of course, [there’s even better proof of his racism](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/people-cant-believe-jd-vance-194208356.html). > [@](#): > > Vance: In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore. [The felon and his flock of fools must return migrants they sent to a prison in El Salvador.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/judge-orders-administration-submit-plans-224750620.html) > [@](#): > > U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Monday ordered the Trump administration to submit plans to return or otherwise provide hearings for over 200 migrants who were deported to El Salvador’s [CECOT mega-prison](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/timeline-trump-administrations-race-deport-hundreds-alleged-gang/story?id=119860136) in March. > > Boasberg has certified a class representing all migrants sent to the prison and says the government must submit its plans to allow them to contest their designation under the [Alien Enemies Act](https://abcnews.go.com/US/appeals-court-hear-arguments-deportation-alleged-venezuelan-gang/story?id=120094673) by Jan. 5. I, for one, am not counting on them having an epiphany and following the judge’s order. [And why should I trust them? Here’s yet another judge the felon’s going to ignore even though he appointed Hizzoner.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-judge-gives-ice-ultimatum-124619928.html) (The **bolding** is mine.) > [@](#): > > A Trump-appointed federal judge has accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement of brazenly lying in court filings and defying court orders in a lawsuit over conditions in a federal detention facility. > > U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown, who was commissioned to the Eastern District of New York in December 2019 during Donald Trump’s first term, is threatening the federal agency with contempt after ICE refused to provide photographs of a holding cell used for unlawful, days-long detention—and made claims to the court he said were “evasive and demonstrably false.” > > Brown issued a 24-page order on Dec. 18 describing the hold-room at the federal courthouse in Central Islip as “putrid and cramped.” > > Brown wrote that nine men were confined in a small space with an open toilet, without bunks, bedding, soap, showers, toothbrushes, or clean clothes, as outside temperatures dropped as low as 21 degrees and “the lights blared 24 hours a day.” > > The habeas case was brought by Erron Anthony Clarke, a Jamaican national who entered the U.S. legally on an H-2B visa in 2018 and later married a U.S. citizen. **Brown noted Clarke has “no record of violence, drug use or criminal history,” and stressed that overstaying a visa is not a criminal offense.** What are some of y’all going on about victims in the Epstein case? [Just ask the felon who the _real_ victims are.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-bemoans-destroyed-reputations-epstein-234409351.html) > [@](#): > > President Donald Trump bemoaned Monday the potential reputational damage inflicted on people who appear in photos released as part of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which he insisted were only made public because of an effort to distract from his accomplishments. > > The comments mark the first time Trump has addressed the files since his Justice Department released hundreds of thousands of them on Friday pursuant to a new law compelling them to do so. The measure cleared both the House and Senate with [support from all but one Republican](https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/politics/epstein-files-vote-house?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo) and [Trump signed it into law](https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/politics/what-we-know-epstein-files?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo); his administration had previously said it did not plan to release any more Epstein materials after a thorough review. > > “A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein. But they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party, and you ruined a reputation of somebody,” Trump said during an event in the library at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach club that he claims to have ejected Epstein from in the early 2000s. > > “A lot of people are very angry that this continues. A lot of Republicans,” he said, claiming the issue was meant to “deflect against a tremendous success.” For once, he got something right. Part of this is about him. But it’s certainly not the way he thinks it is. [The felon denies federal aid to Colorado.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-denies-disaster-aid-colorado-150751827.html) > [@](#): > > President Trump has denied disaster aid to the state of Colorado in the wake of wildfires and flooding. > > The office of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) [announced the denial](https://governorsoffice.colorado.gov/governor/news/governor-polis-senators-bennet-and-hickenlooper-call-president-trump-reverse-denial-colorados) in a Sunday statement. He accused the president of playing “political games” and urged him to reconsider. > > “Coloradans impacted by the Elk and Lee fires and the flooding in Southwestern Colorado deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing,” Polis said in the statement. Just in case you missed it, that’s a **D** after the governor’s name. [And Harris carried the state in 2024.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election_in_Colorado) [We’re screwed. The felon’s actually, really, and truly going to go to war with Venezuela.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-confirms-talked-u-oil-232004704.html) > [@](#): > > At a Mar-a-Lago press conference Monday to announce a new “Trump Class” of battleships, a reporter asked, if Trump had spoken to American oil companies “that have had their assets seized about what a post-Maduro regime would mean for them?” > > “Yeah, I have. All the big ones, yeah,” Trump answered before moving on to the next question. Moving onto the next question? The next question!? Why the ELF\* wasn’t the next question connected to that stupid and dangerous response? \*ELF= **E** ver **L** oving **F** uck. ELF fits in better for the holidays, though. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/948 "2025-12-23T04:54:54Z")
> **[Mike Masnick (@mmasnick.bsky.social)](https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social/post/3mamuwoyvgc2y)** > > Ok. Now had a chance to check and, well, at least some docs do appear to be straight up classic redaction fail. And there are some \*interesting\* bits... [![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/bafkreiflwx3ibx7syntwmycg335pbgi2wbs23t4oxcppkxujxybuscrmoi@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/bafkreiflwx3ibx7syntwmycg335pbgi2wbs23t4oxcppkxujxybuscrmoi@jpeg) [![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/bafkreic2tlk6otrizhq3cqfbgskzp7n7yctfmkm5pybjhg4l2364s2f5py@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/bafkreic2tlk6otrizhq3cqfbgskzp7n7yctfmkm5pybjhg4l2364s2f5py@jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/949 "2025-12-23T05:07:01Z")
That’s the same document as was in your previous post #929 that had the comment > Can you post another example? This file has been this way since 2022 and, so far, no others have been identified as being readable with this trick (or any others). Pretty sure this isn’t the big smoking gun… ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/950 "2025-12-23T05:13:54Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Of course, the magatflatearhers will blame the Democrats and their other usual suspects for this, never even for a nanosecond realizing it’s their idol creating the issue. Of course not. To do so would be to engage in wrongthink, which would be doubleplusungood. And we have always been at war with Venezuela. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/951 "2025-12-23T05:16:58Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > And we have always been at war with Venezuela. I’d bet real money the magatflatearthers couldn’t tell the difference between [Venezuela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela) and [Vuvuzela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuvuzela). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/952 "2025-12-23T09:36:13Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > So, turns out that if you highlight and copy the blacked-out pages of the Epstein files on the DOJ website, the paste them into another word processor, you can read them unredacted. Well, crap. I assumed the pages had only been released as JPG files, and they weren’t incompetent enough to use something that is widely known to be flawed and has failed in government document releases in the past. > **[Redacted Documents Are Not as Secure as You Think](https://www.wired.com/story/redact-pdf-online-privacy/)** > > Popular redaction tools don’t always work as promised, and new attacks can reveal hidden information, researchers say. Somebody in the chain of releasing these documents _had_ to know that this is what would happen. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/953 "2025-12-23T10:01:51Z")
You and I would think so. Yet people have been busted for docx files retaining history or the name of the author. Or mailing laser printouts that have tiny, almost invisible dots which reveal the serial number. > [@Monty](#): > > > [@Coriolanus](#): > > > > yet figured the fucking government would know better. > > Where the Hell have you been since January 20, 2025? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/954 "2025-12-23T11:05:13Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > It would also mean that the victims are exposed. There are victims who have “outed” themselves and no need to redact their names/images… unless you’re using “respect victim privacy” as a cover to protect abusers’ privacy. Which absolutely is a thing with corporations and I’m pretty sure is also a thing here. (Absolutely any victims wanting privacy should have their names/images redacted. That should go without saying, but I’m just sayin…) ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/955 "2025-12-23T12:31:52Z")
The whole “protecting victims’ identities” claim as the reason for the redactions was always a specious one anyway. It would be easy enough to simply black out the victims’ names while leaving everything else intact. There would never be any need to redact entire paragraphs and pages for this reason. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/956 "2025-12-23T13:24:36Z")
It makes more sense if you consider which people the Trump administration are likely to consider the “victims” here. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/957 "2025-12-23T13:33:31Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There are victims who have “outed” themselves and no need to redact their names/images… Yeah obviously. > [@Broomstick](#): > > Absolutely any victims wanting privacy should have their names/images redacted. And obviously those are the ones who shouldn’t be exposed by incompetent government redactors. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/958 "2025-12-23T13:47:47Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > > In October, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association (KDA) trade body said the amount of bourbon in warehouses across the state was at a [record high of more than 16 million barrels](https://kybourbon.com/industry-news/the-bourbon-state-challenges-continue-amid-record-barrel-inventory-skyrocketing-taxes/). I remember, back in the Before Times, when a certain right-wing type was discussing energy independence for the US, he was advocating massively increasing US oil, so that the US could tell the Saudis to “Go drink their oil” if they didn’t like what the US was doing. Well, at least drinking their bourbon won’t actually kill them… ---
**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:** [December 23, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/959 "2025-12-23T13:51:28Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The painting of Trump’s assassination attempt on the stern? …with the weirdly elongated raised arm. I’m just a bit surprised they didn’t add the “Pew! Pew!” sound effects of the guns firing. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298/960 "2025-12-23T17:10:39Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The flag hovering in midair with no flagpole? All of your other points are good, and it’s a ridiculous picture for sure, but the flag isn’t “hovering in midair”; it’s attached to a cable like a flag on a ship normally would be, strung from the mast. Here’s a real photo of a real ship to compare. [![](https://news.usni.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/146943.jpg) ](https://news.usni.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/146943.jpg) So that detail at least wasn’t screwed up. It’s too low of a resolution in the AI picture to see any actual cables, of course, but the flag looks about right. The rest of the ship, though, looks like it came out of an old PlayStation video game. Very crude. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298.md?page=47) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-2/1025298.md?page=49)