The absurdities of the Trump administration and its hangers-on could be written off as a distraction if the stakes weren’t so high. People might be used to banal trolling on social media platforms, but the global hegemon has forced this petulance onto hundreds of millions of people who are worried about their future and the future of the world. That makes the trolling something worse than distracting.
The White House’s online personality is at once extremely disconcerting and extremely juvenile. It’s easy to be stunned by the scale and brazenness of it. During a trade dispute with Canada, and feeling insulted by the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, the president of the United States decides to rename Lake Ontario Lake America, and then proceeds to share memes showcasing the renamed body of water – which remains Lake Ontario outside US borders (and inside it, for some states, such as New York). Not to be outdone, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, posted an attack against a Canadian cadet and her instructor, mocking them and the Canadian armed forces.
