The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
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Hochul says New York won’t call it ‘Lake America’ — MAGA says bring it on

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BS BULLETIN:

  • New York Gov. Kathy Hochul flatly rejected President Trump’s new name for Lake Ontario: “New York won’t be calling it that.”
  • Canadian politicians piled on, but Trump’s supporters had a very different reaction — Glenn Beck called the move a “top tier” troll, while Libs of TikTok declared it “so freaking awesome.”
  • Trump’s executive order makes “Lake America” the name used by the federal government, but it cannot force New York or Canada to use it.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has an answer for President Trump’s newly minted “Lake America.”

Nope.

“New York won’t be calling it that,” Hochul wrote on X after Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario.

And on Friday, Hochul wasn’t backing down.

“I’m speechless. It is so patently absurd,” she told NY1, arguing Trump should be focused on costs facing New Yorkers instead of renaming a lake. “Shame on you.”

Hochul also took a shot at the old HOMES mnemonic schoolchildren use to remember the Great Lakes — Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

Her version after Trump’s change?

“SHAME.”

But here’s the part of the story that’s considerably more fun than another round of politicians yelling at Trump: A whole lot of MAGA thinks this is hilarious.

Glenn Beck had already called “Lake America” a “top tier” Trump troll. When Trump actually signed the executive order, Beck celebrated on X: “THE LAKE AMERICA TROLL JUST BECAME AN EXECUTIVE ORDER.”

Libs of TikTok’s reaction was even shorter: “So freaking awesome.”

The official Republican account joined in: “Same great lake, new AMERICAN name 🇺🇸🇺🇸.”

Former military aide Buzz Patterson wrote, “Homey ain’t playing!” and added, “I love it.”

Conservative commentator TheQuartering acknowledged exactly what critics were complaining about — and embraced it anyway. “I don’t care if it’s petty,” he wrote, predicting that eventually “nobody will call it anything but Lake America just like the Gulf of America.”

So while Hochul and the Canadians are treating this like an international incident, plenty of Trump’s supporters appear to be treating it like the presidential equivalent of changing your neighbor’s Wi-Fi name just because you know it drives him crazy.

Trump certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. “We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” he said while signing the order Thursday.

He then suggested he might not be finished. “We have a gulf and we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean,” Trump told reporters, floating the possibility of changing the Atlantic, the Pacific — or both.

Canada, unsurprisingly, was not laughing. Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed to the lake’s more than 400-year-old name and Indigenous roots before declaring Canadians will call it Lake Ontario “then, now and always.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said essentially the same thing: “It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.”

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston went with: “We’re into some real foolishness now. It’s Lake Ontario, buddy.”

Trump’s order doesn’t require any of them to change a thing.

It directs the Interior Department and Board on Geographic Names to change federal records to “Lake America” and requires federal agencies to use that name. New York, Canada and private mapmakers aren’t bound by it.

Which leaves us with something uniquely 2026:

Washington says Lake America.

Albany and Canada say Lake Ontario.

And MAGA is standing on the shore with popcorn.

MY QUICK TAKE

Was renaming Lake Ontario necessary? Not remotely.

But Hochul’s “we won’t call it that” defiance may be exactly why Trump’s fans are enjoying this so much.

Trump threw a rock into the lake. His opponents immediately jumped in after it.

And now everybody is arguing over what to call the water.

DBS WIRE SOURCES

 

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