President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with Canada has not only split his own Republican Party, it has revealed that he has lost what one writer described as a “superhuman ability” — much to his political detriment.

“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,” wrote Slate’s Ben Jacobs on Monday. “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.”

Pointing out that Trump used to be able to commandeer the news cycle with his controversies, and thereby rally his base behind him, he failed to do so by changing Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America as a way of taking a swipe at 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,” Jacobs observed. “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.”

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