We should all start using the word “hereby” a lot; it makes a person sound more powerful and authoritative and official. Or else it makes a person sound more deranged and out of touch with reality and helpless. It’s one of those.

Donnie Two-Scoops three hours ago:

Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far…….better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing…..your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States. Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE,……..all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!

Magical thinking at its loopiest. All he has to do is say “I hereby order” on Twitter and the job is done; he has Absolute Powers!

Politico documents the other times he’s engaged in this public fantasizing:

March 3, 2017: “I hereby demand a second investigation, after Schumer, of Pelosi for her close ties to Russia, and lying about it,” Trump tweeted.

May 20, 2018: “I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” Trump tweeted.

April 13, 2019: “Just out: The USA has the absolute legal right to have apprehended illegal immigrants transferred to Sanctuary Cities. We herebydemand that they be taken care of at the highest level, especially by the State of California, which is well known or its poor management & high taxes!” Trump tweeted.

Of course it’s trending on Twitter.

Tom Nichols:

I hereby order my Great American Cat not to wake me up at 6am I hereby order my Great American Daughter to be nice to her dad even when she feels like a moody teenager I hereby order our Great American postal service not to deliver flyers from stores I don’t like

#IHerebyOrder

George Conway:

I hereby order the White House staff to take @realDonaldTrump to Walter Reed, and to convene the cabinet under Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.

#Iherebyorder

With many appearances of this snap: