(The Center Square) – President Trump’s order to change Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America is getting mixed reactions in Wisconsin from Republicans and Democrats.
Northwoods congressman, and Republican candidate for governor, Tom Tiffany said he’s not a fan of the president’s order to call Lake Ontario Lake America.
"I believe the Great Lakes are the Great Lakes and should stay Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario," Tiffany said at a campaign stop in Green Bay.
President Trump signed his order Thursday, mirroring his name change for the Gulf of America, and thumbing his nose at Canada at the same time.
"If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean," Trump said. "So maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific."
Tiffany's Democrat opponent in the governor's race, David Crowley, did not say anything publicly about the president's ordered name change.
But Madison's Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan did. Pocan called the name change silly and attacked Tiffany for his past support of the president.
"Well, @TomTiffanyWI disagreeing with Trump on something as silly as 'renaming' Lake Ontario but not disagreeing on grocery tariffs, high gas prices and more, shows his distorted priorities," Pocan wrote on X. "He’s not for you, Wisconsin. He’s for his donors."
But two of Wisconsin's Republican congressmen cheered the president's move.
"LAKE WISCONSIN NEXT 👀👀," western Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden said on X.
"While we're at it – Lake Wisconsin sounds good too," Green Bay-area Congressman Tony Wied added in an X post of his own.
Both Wied and Van Orden included the same map that scratched-out Lake Michigan and renamed it Lake Wisconsin.
Tiffany also joked about changing Lake Michigan to Lake Wisconsin, but also said that he wants to do as much as he can to protect Wisconsin's Great Lakes.
"The district I represent currently includes the south shore of Lake Superior, and one of the greatest assets that we have here in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest," Tiffany added. "And we should make sure and protect that and continue to have it be one of the most valuable assets that we have in Wisconsin."