[mrastro]

This entire issue is a waste of time, the executive order, the GNIS database update, subsequent lawsuits, and news articles like this.

How is this helping anyone? Is it a distraction for actual substantive changes (positive or negative) Trump is making?

[bawolff]

The concern would be that it normalizes expansionist rhetoric, which is very concerning for the countries on the borders of USA. Setting the information space up for future events is a serious thing in geopolitics. It is not just a distraction but can (when combined with many other things) have a real affect down the line.

Its also just a giant middle finger to mexico.

[CamperBob2]

Well, he wouldn't feel the need to distract from positive changes, now, would he?

[alabastervlog]

Throwing out multiple crazy things per day to saturate the media and opposition so they have trouble resisting or reporting on everything was an explicitly stated plan by members of the administration, before the election. Sometimes you can’t come up with anything even hypothetically substantive, I guess, so you rename something that zero people wanted to be renamed.