I would bet good money it's one of two things:

a) Some clearly preposterous order that originated with the demented commander in chief, and they're just going through the motions. Same concept as ordering steam catapults put back on aircraft carriers.

or

b) Intentional misdirect/bait to send various groups of people off in a wrong direction as cover for something else entirely.

I wouldn't leave out: c) The rot has become so pervasive, in the manner of the late Soviet Union, that the people issuing the orders are completely disconnected from the reality on the ground.

This differs from 'a' in that the decision is not humoring the momentary whim of a mad dictator, but an a deliberate decision by a group of professionals (at least in theory), who have destroyed any possible means of connecting themselves with real information.