Trump for a Decade Had One Superhuman Ability. Now, It Seems He’s Losing It.

Politics The “Lake America” gambit shows the president’s ability to redirect the public’s attention is slipping. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had the skyhook. Michael Jordan had the fadeaway. Donald Trump has … “the distraction”—at least, he used to. Throughout his political career, Trump’s signature skill has been to drive the conversation where he wanted it to go. He declares victory when things have not been won. He ducks attribution with the rhetorical tic “many people are saying,” frequently followed by things that people are decidedly not saying. He posts outrageous graphics on social media. And, of course, he renames things: Political opponents get nicknames, buildings get Trump’s name, and bodies of water get America’s name. For the past decade of political life, moves like those have been enough to commandeer news cycles, sometimes for days or even weeks. Except, of late, it’s running out of steam. That was demonstrated last week when Trump announced he’d rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America” amid an ongoing trade dispute with Canada. It’s a move we’ve seen before. Immediately upon taking office in 2025, Trump decreed that the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America. It was a quick and easy troll for a president who had taken office blaming Mexico for illegal immigration and touting the need to build a wall. The move became an instant political shibboleth. Republican governors along the Gulf Coast immediately followed Trump’s lead, saying their states would use the Gulf of America nomenclature. It even provoked a feud with the Associated Press that led to Trump banning them from closely covering the president. His team took over key functions of the White House Correspondents’ Association because the nonprofit press association refused to change its style guide to reflect Trump’s preferred name. Even today, one can go to Trump rallies and see shirts bragging about the Gulf of America and go online and see MAGA influencers still using the nomenclature. Trump, of course, renamed the Gulf of Mexico on his first day back in office, at a time when he was at the peak of his political influence. More than 20 months later, he is trying again. But Lake Ontario’s rechristening is coming as the president’s approval in public polling hits all-time lows, and, upon reaching back into his bag of tricks, it turns out they’ve gone stale. His Oval Office pronouncement that the smallest of the Great Lakes in surface area has a new name has mostly been met with shrugs and eyerolls by an American public increasingly unimpressed by Trump’s attempts to be shocking. His tactics lose their effectiveness by their repeated use. Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook worked because it could not be blocked. Trump’s distractions were once effective because they could not be ignored. But if Trump makes the same outrageous statement a dozen times, it loses its effectiveness. It’s no longer novel. It’s repetitive and boring. Of course, while Trump’s gambit is a sideshow in the United States. It is headline news in Canada. It is the story of the day for the CBC and the Globe and Mail. And while his various pronouncements on the status of the Strait of Hormuz, whether it is open, closed, or something in between, are now met with a shrug in the U.S., global markets don’t react the same way. But then again, foreigners have less familiarity with Trump, often still assuming the president of the United States’ statements represent meaningful policy of the United States—and not just “the president is saying some stuff.” Back at home, however, the challenge Trump has is that while he still has more than two years in office, he hasn’t developed any new moves. He can certainly rename the Strait of Hormuz the Strait of America: Last week he claimed it as American territory, putting the strait in the company of Greenland, Canada, and Venezuela as annexations via Truth Social. But, at some point, it gradually shifts more and more from a shocking display of dominance to a tired party trick. Certainly MAGA allies have rejoiced in his renaming, but domestic attention moved on pretty quickly. In the meantime, nothing has changed about Lake Ontario. The water from Niagara Falls still flows down into it and it all still drains down the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing has changed with the trade war between the United States and Canada either. The only thing that will have changed will be a handful of government maps and, of course, the Canadian public’s view of Trump and the United States, which has only somehow gotten worse. And, of course, Trump was able to drive the news. But not for weeks or even days. Just for a few minutes on a Thursday afternoon in August. Canada Donald Trump Foreign Policy International Maps