The left is outraged. President Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, following his earlier order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. They're calling it authoritarian overreach. An affront to international norms. Proof of a man drunk on executive power.
These are the same people who renamed nine military bases, deleted the word "mother" from federal health guidance, and spent $60 million in taxpayer money on new signs.
They weren't concerned about executive overreach then. They were concerned about their feelings.
Let's go through the receipts.
In 2015, Barack Obama decided that Mount McKinley — the tallest peak in North America, named after an American president — needed a different name. Congress had blocked the change for years. Obama didn't care. He had the Interior Department handle it administratively, bypassed the legislature entirely, and renamed the mountain Denali. The media celebrated. Nobody wondered aloud whether the president had any business unilaterally renaming natural landmarks by executive fiat.
That particular concern appears to have developed recently.
In 2023, the Biden administration spent more than $60 million in taxpayer money renaming nine military installations. Fort Bragg — home to the 82nd Airborne, Army Special Forces, and tens of thousands of soldiers who never once cared what the sign at the gate said — became Fort Liberty. Fort Hood became Fort Cavazos. Sixty million dollars. For signs.
Anyone who objected was told the names were offensive and the conversation was over.
Inside Congress, Nancy Pelosi's House quietly rewrote its own rules to eliminate gendered language from official documents. "Husband and wife" became "spouse." "Mother and father" became "parent." Words that have carried specific meaning in every human society across all of recorded history, deleted from the congressional record. No debate. No vote. Just a new rulebook, handed down from on high.
And in the broader progressive ecosystem — federal health agencies, hospital systems, public schools — "mother" became "birthing person." "Nursing mother" became "chest feeder." Real words used by real people to describe real things, replaced with clinical euphemisms designed to make a specific ideological faction feel more comfortable.
Nobody asked the mothers.
Now — with Trump renaming a lake and a gulf — the very same coalition has discovered a passionate commitment to the sanctity of geographic names.
Here's some useful context: Americans have called the Rio Grande the Rio Grande since the 16th century. Mexico has always called it the Rio Bravo. One river. Two names. Two countries deciding for themselves what to call the thing in front of them. It has worked fine for five hundred years. Geographic names have always been political. They have always reflected whoever holds the pen.
The left understood this perfectly when they held it. Obama knew it when he renamed McKinley. Pelosi knew it when she deleted "mother." Every hospital administrator who switched to "birthing person" knew exactly what they were doing — and it wasn't neutral.
The outrage over Lake America and the Gulf of America is not about principle. If it were about principle, they would have shown some when it was their turn.
This is about power. They had it, they used it to rename everything they wanted renamed, and now someone else has it and is doing the same — and they're calling it an emergency.
Fort Bragg is Fort Bragg again. Denali is McKinley again. The Gulf of Mexico is the Gulf of America. Lake Ontario is Lake America.
The people who replaced "mother" with "birthing person" and spent $60 million on new military base signs would like you to know that changing the name of a lake is a very serious problem.
Take that seriously if you can.
For more examples and thoughts on this check out Victor Davis Hanson’s poignant take on Democrats hypocrisy…