The long weekend may have proved too long for Donald Trump, who passed the time by musing about annexing other countries, unilaterally renaming places he’s not allowed to rename and turning himself into a superhero.
Amid the torrent of memes and posts by the president on his Truth Social platform over the Labor Day holiday weekend was a bizarre AI-generated video depicting Trump as the Green Lantern DC superhero, wielding a glowing green power ring to erect his border wall, illuminate an “American manufacturing” scene, and command a fleet of warplanes and warships behind him.
Trump’s controversial forays into AI-generated images have seen him depict himself as a Christ-like figure, the Pope, Atlas from Greek mythology, as Superman, and many others.
Over the weekend he also shared a map with a US flag emblazoned over most of North America and several countries in Central America, as well as Greenland, Iceland and many islands in the Caribbean. Iceland has summoned its US ambassador over the post. Trump also separately claimed the moon.
The president has spent much of his second term taunting Canada repeatedly with the suggestion of making it a 51st US state with “economic force”, and aggressively pushing for the annexation of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, which has sparked a major geopolitical row. He has also threatened military action in Mexico, Cuba and Colombia, threatened to seize the Panama Canal, and casually mused about taking over other countries including Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
Also in the flurry of Labor Day posts was a map of the US state of New Mexico with the word “Mexico” crossed out and replaced with “America”. A few hours later, he posted what seems to be an AI video of him sticking an “America” label over the word “Mexico” on a “Welcome to New Mexico” road sign.
Trump’s suggestion that New Mexico should be renamed to “New America” comes as tense trade negotiations with Mexico ramp up. It also comes hot on the heels of Trump signing an order directing the federal government to change Lake Ontario’s name to “Lake America” amid his escalating trade war with Canada after negotiations last month failed to produce a deal.
He has also joked about renaming either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, along with the strait of Hormuz, which has been central to his disastrous war against Iran, to “Trump strait”. He declined to elaborate on that latter idea when asked by a reporter in the Oval Office last week.
In the case of New Mexico, whose name predates the founding of the United States and is explicitly enshrined in its constitution, Trump has no legal authority to rename it – or indeed any US state. Any change to its name would have to come from the state itself and would require a formal constitutional amendment.
While his “Lake America” order directs federal agencies to adopt the name-change on US maps, documents and databases, Trump has no authority to rename Canada’s portion of the lake, nor to compel Canada, international legal bodies, international mapmakers or the rest of the world to adopt a new name.