In an odd way, U.S. President Donald Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario as Lake America demonstrates the limits of his power. Yes, Trump elicited the annoyed responses he hoped for from Canadian politicians. But the renaming is a symbolic gesture that binds only U.S. federal agencies. State governments and private entities in the U.S. can’t be required to use federal place names, and the order has even less clout beyond America’s borders. Relatively impotent though it is, renaming a body of water shared with another country is one of the few ways the president can provoke neighbors without risking a courtroom slap-down, as he’s received over tariffs. It’s still more power than a president should have. Read More