What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to use the power of the presidency to schedule a football game he goes to sometimes.

Today, Trump used his private microblogging site to issue what may be his vaguest and most toothless promise of an "order" yet: he said he would, at some point in the future, issue an executive order decreeing that no other football game could conflict with the broadcast of the annual Army-Navy game.

The game is already televised every year on CBS. It's not clear why Trump thought that other games happening at the same time would keep anyone from watching it who wanted to. 

The U.S. Military Academy's Black Knights and the Naval Academy's Midshipmen traditionally play at the end of each team's season, a Saturday in early December. Since college football games are almost all played on Saturdays, dozens of other games might normally conflict with it, most of which are televised either nationally or regionally. Trump's "order" would clear out a four-hour window in the middle of all that. 

To be clear: Trump has no authority as president to demand that the NCAA, the NFL, individual universities, public or private high schools, or Pop Warner leagues schedule their games according to his whim. Nor can he legally force the dozens of networks that carry sports over broadcast or cable not to air any such game. But he can signal that he will use the power of his office to corruptly punish them if they don't go along with his demands—something he's done quite a few times in his second term already.

Trump, who helped drive the short-lived USFL into the ground in the 1980s, isn't known as a football fan. But there's one reason the Army-Navy game might hold a special place in his heart: because virtually everyone in the stands is connected to the military, they can be ordered not to drown him in boos or otherwise show open signs of disrespect—which isn't the case when he appears in front of other football crowds.

Why does this matter?

• Just because an illegal "order" is stupid and mostly harmless doesn't mean it's not authoritarian.  

• "More than one thing can be on television at the same time" is not something you need to explain to someone who is fully mentally there.