Comedian Bill Maher used his HBO show "Real Time" to mock liberal anger over President Donald Trump's decision to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," arguing that critics were being hypocritical given their own history of pushing politically driven language changes. Maher's monologue came as a US-Canada trade dispute intensified, with talks between the two countries collapsing and Washington pressing ahead with 50% tariffs on Canadian goods.

Trump signed the executive order renaming the lake from the Oval Office, calling the change "official, effective immediately," and Maher likened it to his earlier renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." Conservative commentators Curtis Houck and Tim Graham of NewsBusters backed Maher's point, arguing that liberals who embraced terms such as "Latinx" and "birthing person" have no standing to object to Trump's renaming, and accusing the left of wanting sole control over changes to language and terminology.