Illinois governor trolls President Trump in video announcing Lake Michigan's new name
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker threw some shade at President Donald Trump in a Friday parody video, where he issued a proclamation to rename Lake Michigan after the "great state" of Illinois.
Pritzker delivers the "important announcement" in front of a podium as cameras click in the background, which resembles the setup for a run-of-the-mill press conference.
"The world's finest geographers, experts who study the Earth's natural environment have concluded a decades-long council and determined that a Great Lake deserves to be named after a great state," Pritzker says in the minute-long video. "So today, I'm issuing a proclamation declaring that hereinafter, Lake Michigan shall be known as Lake Illinois."
Pritzker took the bit a step further by stating the proclamation was forwarded to Google, which will "ensure the world's maps reflect this momentous change."
Posted via his personal accounts on Facebook, Threads and X, Pritzker's skit alludes to one of Trump's recent executive orders requiring the federal government to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on official maps. And tech giant Google is ready to enact the change just as soon as it has been updated on official government sources.
Pritzker made another overt Trump reference when he mentioned plans to annex Green Bay for protection and against any threats made, foreign or domestic. Trump has previously expressed interest in acquiring Greenland, which according to the country's prime minister is not for sale and will never be.
"I've also instructed my team to work diligently to prepare for an important announcement next week regarding the Mississippi River," Pritzker said. "God Bless America, and Bear Down."
Pritzker's punnish ploy: Illinois annexing Green Bay as part of Trump troll
Pritzker's proclamation to rename Lake Michigan and annex Green Bay doesn't just throw shade at Trump. Cheeseheads might melt down at Pritzker's boast that he'd like to annex Green Bay – though it's likely a jab at Trump, who has alleged he wants to buy Greenland and "take back" the Panama Canal. Such a manifest destiny move would gain Illinois the third-oldest NFL franchise in the Packers.
Only the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals, founded as the Chicago Cardinals, are older, being founded in 1920. The teams are hated rivals having competed against other for more than a century, with the first game in 1921.
Who is in charge of renaming geographical places?
Renaming geographical place names is the work of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The federal office has the power to rename geographic places within the United States.
"The BGN is responsible by law for standardizing geographic names throughout the federal government and discourages name changes unless there is a compelling reason," the Board of Geographic Names says on its website. "Further, changing an existing name merely to correct or re-establish historical usage should not be a primary reason to change a name."
Those changes would not necessarily be binding on the states bordering the gulf or for other countries. But at least one state has already embraced it.
In a state of emergency declaration last Tuesday about cold weather there, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, "Whereas an area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America, interacting with Arctic air, will bring widespread impactful weather to North Florida beginning Tuesday."
(This story has been updated to add more information.)
Contributing: Gabe Hauari, Elizabeth Weise and Trevor Hughes, Paste BN