Trump enjoys trolling the left, and the base loves him for it. The renaming of Lake Ontario and the posts about “New America” are classic examples of the tactic. The left splutters with rage, and MAGA cheers at its impotence.
The dark side to this kind of trolling is that it exposes Trump as a wannabe autocrat who has absolutely no interest in reaching out to the millions of Americans who don’t support him. If public opinion genuinely is of no concern to him, what is preventing him from going full throttle with despotism? Not John Roberts–that’s for sure.