Matt Walsh, described by Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Walsh_(political_commentator)) as “an American far-right political commentator and podcast host” (a description that sounds harsh, but I’d say is describing him euphemistically (splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/matt-walsh)), on Twitter/X (retweeting the official White House account’s announcement (x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2093027464545018109) of the name change):

This will be an unpopular opinion on the Right but I think this is kind of dumb, even as a troll. Lake Ontario was given that name on maps by European explorers long before the Canadian province of Ontario was named. There are several cities in America called Ontario — at least one of them predating the Canadian province by like 100 years — because the word originates with native tribes in North America. It’s not a Canadian invention. Canadians never uniquely owned the lake or the name. So in effect all you’re doing here is actually giving them credit for a thing that wasn’t theirs to begin with. Yeah it’s funny when Canadians are upset I guess or whatever, but Lake Ontario, the name itself, is American history dating back many centuries. Not sure how you own Canada by deleting your own history. Politically this is also stupid because the number one challenge Republicans will face in the midterms is the charge that they haven’t used their time in power to advance the interests of everyday Americans. This kind of thing will be used as evidence to make that case. That might not be fair. Sure technically you can advance the interests of everyday Americans and also do dumb shit like this. But the fact is that far from “making liberal heads explore [sic],” you’re actually handing them a political gift. It helps their case much more than it helps ours. And, like I said, the historical logic here is totally confused. Lake Ontario was not named after the Canadian province of Ontario. It’s the other way around.
Good sign that the whole mad-king thing is running on fumes when even Daily Wire commentators agree that this is stupid and isn’t even an effective troll. Every deluded fool runs into reality eventually. (Via Oliver Darcy’s Status (status.news/p/puck-redbird-investors-paramount-gerry-cardinale).)
★ (daringfireball.net/linked/2026/08/28/matt-walsh-lake-ontario)