Bill Maher ridicules liberals’ 'Lake America' outrage with jab at left-wing language police

Comedian Bill Maher mocked liberals for crying foul over President Donald Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario, suggesting they know a thing or two about changing things to fit a political agenda.

In Friday’s opening monologue of HBO’s "Real Time," host Maher poked fun at Trump’s renaming of one of the Great Lakes to "Lake America" during an ongoing trade war with Canada.

"Trump is so mad at Canada he renamed Lake Ontario Lake America," Maher said. "Now I gotta buy a new globe again."

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President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) (AP)

"It’s like the fifth time it’s happened," Maher added, referring to Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America."

Trade talks between the two countries crumbled late Friday as the United States moved forward with 50% tariffs on Canada.

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Bill Maher attends the 27th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor gala at the Kennedy Center on June 28, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Shannon Finney/WireImage)

Maher then took aim at liberal outrage over the president’s decision, suggesting critics of Trump’s move had embraced politically driven changes in terminology themselves.

"The liberals are very pissed at this," Maher quipped, adding, "They say you can’t just go around changing things to fit your political agenda. Just ask any Latinx birthing person."

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"Making the Great Lakes Even Greater" signage is displayed during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. President Trump announced he was moving to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, escalating his clash with Canada after trade negotiations between the two nations collapsed. (Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump signed the executive order renaming the lake from the Oval Office on Thursday, telling reporters, "This is official, effective immediately."

Maher’s criticism was echoed by NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck, who told Fox News Digital that liberals’ willingness to embrace new terminology undermines their criticism of Trump’s latest decision.

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"The fact that 'Latinx' and 'birthing person' are increasingly accepted as a punchline rather than a serious demographic statement should give all of us hope that ‘Woke One’ is dead and we're never going back to that farcical time," Houck told Fox News Digital.

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"If only the liberal, elitist media could more consistently get the picture," he continued. "The left needs to take a seat before they can say anything about anything being renamed."

The sentiment was echoed by NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham.

"Liberals want to rename all kinds of things to satisfy their urge for wokeness," Graham told Fox News Digital. "Just in this decade, they've pulled down all kinds of statues and renamed scads of military bases. What they hate is anything Trump does to add a patriotic pro-America tinge to something which they associate more with his ego than with patriotism. They see red – as in a red MAGA cap."

"The media routinely genuflect ethnic and LGBTQ pressure groups and their demands to remake the language we're all supposed to use," he continued. "So they can't seriously object to renaming things. They just want to be the only people who get to rename things."

Julia Bonavita is a media and culture writer for Fox News Digital, and a Fox Flight Team drone pilot. You can follow her at @juliabonavita13 on all platforms and send story tips to julia.bonavita@fox.com.