# Trump as actual motherfucking president

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [October 1, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331 "2016-10-01T02:07:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/1 "2016-10-01T02:07:50Z")

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> **[President Trump’s First Term](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/26/president-trumps-first-term)**
>
> His campaign tells us a lot about what kind of Commander-in-Chief he will be.

Technically a post-election topic, so mods - relocate this to wherever. I haven’t read every Hillary/Donald thread, so it’s possible this link has appeared elsewhere, but definitely not as a thesis statement to form a thread around.

When I first came across it I thought ok - what kind of speculation-fest is this gonna be? The article is a real bum-dinger (bummer), that, to its credit, used many sources, thus ameliorating my concern about this turning out to be a writer’s contemplation.

Apart from these mere scraps of consolation:

“Some of Trump’s promises would be impossible to fulfill without the consent of Congress or the courts; namely, repealing Obamacare, cutting taxes, and opening up “our libel laws” that protect reporters, so that “we can sue them and win lots of money.” (In reality, there are no federal libel laws.) **Even if Republicans retain control of Congress, they are unlikely to have the sixty votes in the Senate required to overcome a Democratic filibuster**.”

and…

"Modern Presidents have occasionally been constrained by isolated acts of disobedience by government officials. To confront terrorism, Trump has said, ‘you have to take out their families’, work on ‘closing that Internet up in some ways,’ and use tactics that are ‘frankly unthinkable’ and ‘a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.’ **General Michael Hayden, a former head of the C.I.A. and of the National Security Agency, predicts that senior officers would refuse to carry out those proposals. ‘You are required not to follow an unlawful order,’ he has said."**

(bolding mine)

…really, this _is_ a bum-dinger.

I’ll be the first to admit this is about as barfy as a subject can get, (and wow while reading the article my appetite “went that-away” and I actually could not finish the rest of my fucking dinner), but I figured I’d throw it out there anyway - “confronting the scary blackness” (my Trump presidency metaphor).

ok - I’m figuring noone here will move up here to Canada, but I’m quite curious if folks have had to come up with, like, _any_ kind of…contingency plan(?) or whatever to contend with the unthinkable, thus - this OP won’t have any particular angle or opening argument of sorts, just a curiosity about such a nightmarishly, still-uncomprehendable situation that might require some of you folks to, um, acclimatize (acclimate?) to.

(please note _awesome_ use of preposition to end that last paragraph)

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/2 "2016-10-01T02:12:22Z")

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Become an honest-to-goodness prepper, I guess?

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/3 "2016-10-01T02:24:20Z")

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Rant.

Pit.

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**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/4 "2016-10-01T02:31:00Z")

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Yeah but Donald Trump landed the endorsement of [The National Enquirer](http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/donald-trump-lands-endorsement-the-national-enquirer). That has to count for something.

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**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/5 "2016-10-01T02:44:37Z")

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I think the most likely outcome is what we see in Arizona in a huuuuuuuge scale. Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been doing a lot of what Trump dreams to do to America, with the nasty result being that his authoritarianism has cost the state close to 50 millions dollars in court costs and defense attorneys.

Mostly paid by the taxpayers of Arizona. Besides the costs for local business due to lost revenue and several not coming to Arizona because of the racial profiling and laws that affect minorities. (It is better now because the federal government did limit the new laws and the reach of the sheriff) those court costs are one big reason why other areas, like investigating rapes, have suffered because of the priorities that many people that vote for the likes of Arpaio like to see.

I can see Trump doing lots of things for all those that voted for him. And so a lot of treasure will be lost with the constant legal fights that a lot of people will bring against Trump when he will make orders that eventually will be declared illegal, or that by the time the courts or the legislative branch react to the underhanded measures of Trump, it will be too late for many.

In essence: [what a strange game, the only winning move is not to vote for Trump](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s93KC4AGKnY)… and don’t let his hackers get the launching codes either.

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**Author:** ![HeweyLogan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heweylogan/32/547_2.png) [@HeweyLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeweyLogan)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/6 "2016-10-01T04:49:51Z")

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> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> … has cost the state close to 50 millions dollars in court costs and defense attorneys.

When I hear Democrats talk about money and budgets, I usually hear about how it represents only .008% of the state budget. Who cares… it’s a drop in the bucket.

But now it’s an issue? The spending?

> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> … those court costs are one big reason why other areas, like investigating rapes, have suffered because of the priorities that many people that vote for the likes of Arpaio like to see.

I’d love to see you back that up with something.

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**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/7 "2016-10-01T09:23:03Z")

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> [@HeweyLogan](#):
>
> When I hear Democrats talk about money and budgets, I usually hear about how it represents only .008% of the state budget. Who cares… it’s a drop in the bucket.
> 
> But now it’s an issue? The spending?

_What_ represents .008% of the state budget? Remember that states may have much lower taxes,\* per capita\*, than the federal government.

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**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/8 "2016-10-01T10:48:59Z")

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Quick question. If you were given a half-billion dollars specifically to _lose_ a Presidential campaign - and that was your _only_ job; to lose - how, specifically, would your campaign differ from Trump’s?

Short of actually taking a dump _during_ a Presidential debate, I’ve got no earthly idea.

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/9 "2016-10-01T12:30:45Z")

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> [@Memnon](#):
>
> Quick question. If you were given a half-billion dollars specifically to _lose_ a Presidential campaign - and that was your _only_ job; to lose - how, specifically, would your campaign differ from Trump’s?

Announce you have converted to Islam and intend to spend the entire sum on terrorist acts in the US.

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**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/10 "2016-10-01T13:04:37Z")

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> [@Memnon](#):
>
> Quick question. If you were given a half-billion dollars specifically to _lose_ a Presidential campaign - and that was your _only_ job; to lose - how, specifically, would your campaign differ from Trump’s?

I’d arrange to kick a kitten out of my way and be filmed doing it.

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**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/11 "2016-10-01T13:26:28Z")

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> [@HeweyLogan](#):
>
> When I hear Democrats talk about money and budgets, I usually hear about how it represents only .008% of the state budget. Who cares… it’s a drop in the bucket.
> 
> But now it’s an issue? The spending?

I’d rather have .008% spent on improving public life than squandered on legal fees to nobody’s benefit but lawyers.

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/12 "2016-10-01T13:43:52Z")

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> [@Bricker](#):
>
> I’d arrange to kick a kitten out of my way and be filmed doing it.

Looking at all that Trump has said and done, do you _really_ think that one act would kill his campaign?

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**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/13 "2016-10-01T14:00:24Z")

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President Trump would spend a fair amount of time and energy using the power of the presidency settling grudges and going after individuals and organizations who criticize him. His administration would be plagued by scandals, especially with conflict of interests with his many business dealings around the world. It’s difficult to keep track of every outlandish event of his campaign, ranging from the man himself to those around him. I don’t see why this wouldn’t continue through his first term. High chance of impeachment.

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**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/14 "2016-10-01T14:19:10Z")

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> [@HeweyLogan](#):
>
> When I hear Democrats talk about money and budgets, I usually hear about how it represents only .008% of the state budget. Who cares… it’s a drop in the bucket.
> 
> But now it’s an issue? The spending?

What **foolsguinea** and **Malden Capell** said.

> [@HeweyLogan](#):
>
> I’d love to see you back that up with something.

You must be new… [checks his joining date] Yep, welcome to the dope, here is your goat: 😛

> **[Maricopa County to Pay $3.5 Million for Botched Sheriff's Office Rape...](https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/maricopa-county-to-pay-35-million-for-botched-sheriffs-office-rape-investigation-7287590)**
>
> Maricopa County will pay $3.5 million for one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's mishandled rape investigations. The county Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Wednesday to approve the settlement for a Valley family who sued in Superior Court over the botched...

> [@](#):
>
> Maricopa County will pay $3.5 million for one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s mishandled rape investigations.
> 
> The county Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Wednesday to approve the settlement for a Valley family who sued in Superior Court over the botched case.
> 
> The case of Sabrina Morrison was one of hundreds of sexual-assaults that didn’t receive a proper investigation from the Sheriff’s Office in the mid-2000s, when Arpaio was focusing on immigrant roundups and his ethically corrupt anti-corruption task force.

> [@](#):
>
> Hundreds of poorly investigated cases came from the small, west-side town of El Mirage, which had been policed by the Sheriff’s Office from 2005 to 2007 following problems with the town’s police force. Deputy Chief Frank Munnell detailed the scandal in his 63-page memo to Sheriff Arpaio that contained a litany of complaints. The office re-opened numerous cases, finding that more than 500 had been mishandled. While some of the sexual-assault reports were likely invalid, many weren’t. The news media, including New Times, found several disturbing cases in which apparently legitimate rape accusations were pushed to the side by a staff overloaded with work that, in retrospect, seems trivial.
> 
> In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice tied the scandal to the systemic discrimination of Hispanics going on in the department.
> 
> “Faced with such an increase in crime and the risk of harm presented by unaddressed sexual assaults, a law enforcement agency ordinarily would be expected to prioritize more serious offenses, such as crimes of sexual violence, over less serious offenses, such as low-level immigration offenses,” the Justice Department’s May 2012 report on the MCSO states.
> 
> Of course, the MCSO is no ordinary law-enforcement agency.
> 
> An investigation into the overall problem was stalled for political reasons. No one at the agency was ever disciplined.

Too bad that Trump instead of repudiating Arpaio has decided to get **closer** to him. And based on your first reply, it is clear that you are also getting closer to them, joining the basket of deplorables.

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**Author:** ![HeweyLogan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heweylogan/32/547_2.png) [@HeweyLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeweyLogan)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/15 "2016-10-01T14:36:45Z")

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> [@foolsguinea](#):
>
> _What_ represents .008% of the state budget?

The 50 million dollar settlements mentioned earlier by GIGObuster. I took a guess that it’s peanuts compared to their overall budget, an argument I often hear from Democrats regarding certain spending.

A more accurate number is that it represents 0.28 percent of the states yearly budget.

[https://www.azdor.gov/Portals/0/AnnualReports/FY15%20Annual%20Report\_web.pdf](https://www.azdor.gov/Portals/0/AnnualReports/FY15%20Annual%20Report_web.pdf)

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**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/16 "2016-10-01T14:45:42Z")

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And that is closer to the amount that would had made police able to investigate many of the rape cases properly.

[http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/botched-phoenix-rape-investigation-leads-to-major-lawsuit-settlement](http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/botched-phoenix-rape-investigation-leads-to-major-lawsuit-settlement)

> [@](#):
>
> The botched sex-crimes investigations served as an embarrassment for Arpaio, who promotes himself as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” and eventually reopened more than 400 of its sex-crime cases. The sheriff apologized in December 2011 for the bungled cases, and his office has since said it has moved to clear up the cases and taken steps to prevent the problem from happening again.  
> \*\*  
> An internal review attributed the failures to understaffing and mismanagement. A former supervisor says her investigators were pulled away from time to time to help with training efforts and Arpaio’s immigrant-smuggling squad.\*\*
> 
> The lawsuit by the 13-year-old girl’s guardians alleged that the subsequent attacks on the girl could have been avoided if Arpaio’s office arrested the suspect after he first abused her in March 2007 and threatened to kill her if she reported the allegations.
> 
> The sheriff’s office responded to the initial rape allegation after it was revealed to officials at her school a day after the attack. A sheriff’s deputy interviewed the girl, who underwent a forensic exam to seek evidence of rape, the lawsuit said.
> 
> The lawsuit said crime lab officials told the sheriff’s office less than two weeks after the attack that it needed a blood sample from the suspect, whose identity was known to investigators.
> 
> Instead, the lawsuit alleged the sheriff’s office did nothing to push the investigation forward for more than three years. During that time, the suspect continued his sexual attacks on the girl, leading to her pregnancy, which was aborted in 2009, the lawsuit said.

Of course that is peanuts for the likes of Arpaio, Trump and **HeweyLogan**.

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**Author:** ![HeweyLogan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heweylogan/32/547_2.png) [@HeweyLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeweyLogan)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/17 "2016-10-01T14:47:46Z")

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> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> You must be new… [checks his joining date] Yep, welcome to the dope, here is your goat: 😛
> 
> [Maricopa County to Pay $3.5 Million for Botched Sheriff's Office Rape Investigation | Valley Fever | Phoenix | Phoenix New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Phoenix, Arizona](http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/maricopa-county-to-pay-35-million-for-botched-sheriffs-office-rape-investigation-7287590).

Your cite talks about how a lawsuit against a rape investigation cost the state of Arizona 35 million dollars to settle. Not that because of those settlements the state can’t investigate rape, etc. In fact it kind of contradicts it.

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**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/18 "2016-10-01T14:53:48Z")

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> [@HeweyLogan](#):
>
> Your cite talks about how a lawsuit against a rape investigation cost the state of Arizona 35 million dollars to settle. Not that because of those settlements the state can’t investigate rape, etc. In fact it kind of contradicts it.

**3.5** million, and being obtuse does not make you sound better, the settlement would not had taken place if the Sheriff would not had wasted those peanuts on his racial profiling that did explode in the sheriff face later. With more costs to the estate.

> [@](#):
>
> The $3.5 million comes on top of more than $10 million paid out in lawsuits related to Arpaio’s bungling just over the last few years.

And again: “Faced with such an increase in crime and the risk of harm presented by unaddressed sexual assaults, a law enforcement agency ordinarily would be expected to prioritize more serious offenses, such as crimes of sexual violence, over less serious offenses, such as low-level immigration offenses,” the Justice Department’s May 2012 report on the MCSO states.

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**Author:** ![HeweyLogan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heweylogan/32/547_2.png) [@HeweyLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeweyLogan)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/19 "2016-10-01T15:04:58Z")

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> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> And again: “Faced with such an increase in crime and the risk of harm presented by unaddressed sexual assaults, a law enforcement agency ordinarily would be expected to prioritize more serious offenses, such as crimes of sexual violence, over less serious offenses, such as low-level immigration offenses,” the Justice Department’s May 2012 report on the MCSO states.

Which was attributed **“to understaffing and mismanagement”** as you so kindly pointed out above. Not that because of the money spent to settle those lawsuits investigations into rape etc. can’t take place.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-as-actual-motherfucking-president/767331/20 "2016-10-01T15:12:55Z")

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I thought trump said he wanted to do his daughter. Is he eyeing his mother now, too??? :eek:

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