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Dictators make spurious announcements in order to see who obeys and who doesn't, and then punish those who didn't, in order to further their own grip on power.
Whether the dictator does this one time, or a million times, each time matters. Each time you obey the dictator, other people see you obeying the dictator, which is you handing your credibility to the dictator. It entrenches them further. See The Power of the Powerless for how it played out in the Soviet Union: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Powerless#Hav...
> Havel uses the example of a greengrocer who displays in his shop the sign Workers of the world, unite! Since failure to display the sign could be seen as disloyalty, he displays it and the sign becomes not a symbol of his enthusiasm for the regime, but a symbol of both his submission to it and humiliation by it.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/hono...
> The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1171557898746...
Because my parent comment said that he was throwing a tantrum. I don't see any evidence that he is balling his eyes out, trashing the Oval Office, or screaming. The order is not written in childish frustration, but in a professional tone.
These actions are not commonplace. This is not how you run a country. The long held names of bodies of water with international neighbors are now suddenly up for changes on a whim. No discussion, no convincing, just I say so.
That's what it means being the president. Executive power.
"Executive POWER...."
This is intentional manipulation
It's part of the "flood the field with bullshit" scheme of Steve Bannon
Or reaming stadiums (which get updated on maps) for sponsorships, renaming towns for sponsorships… we have a never ending stream of renamings to be mad at and wave our ineffectual fists at.
Second, I don't think anyone is losing sleep at night over this, except for maybe Trump.
But third, yes, some of us do like, in our own small and quiet ways, not to cooperate with pettiness, arbitrary authority, and executive overreach.