Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is the latest to poke fun at U.S. President Donald Trump over his recent moves to rename the Gulf of Mexico, putting out his own statement announcing the renaming of one of the Great Lakes.
In a parody video shared to social media, Pritzker, a longtime critic of Trump, issued a proclamation that he would be renaming Lake Michigan after the “great state” of Illinois.
In the video, Pritzker steps up to a podium as cameras click off-screen, resembling a 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. “So today, I’m issuing a proclamation declaring that hereinafter, Lake Michigan shall be known as Lake Illinois.”
He added that the proclamation has been sent to Google to update their maps.
But the jokes didn’t stop there. Pritzker also went on to state that Illinois would annex Green Bay, Wis., in an effort to protect itself against foreign or domestic threats, trolling Republicans’ efforts to purchase, and potentially rename, Greenland.
“I’ve also instructed my team to work diligently to prepare for an important announcement next week regarding the Mississippi River. God bless America and bear down. Thank you,” he said, capping off the video, riffing on the well-known “Bear Down” slogan that’s popular among Chicago Bears fans.
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The “announcement” follows Trump’s earlier executive orders renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and returning Alaska’s Mount Denali to Mount McKinley.
“America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs,” Trump said at the time.
A new bill, introduced by Congress late last week, also seeks to rename Greenland to “Red, White, and Blueland,” should an acquisition ever come to fruition.
The bill, introduced by U.S. Republican Rep. Buddy Carter, would give Trump the power to enter into negotiations with Denmark to acquire Greenland and rename it if it passes the House and Senate.
“America is back and will soon be bigger than ever with the addition of Red, White, and Blueland,” Carter said in a statement. “President Trump has correctly identified the purchase of what is now Greenland as a national security priority, and we will proudly welcome its people to join the freest nation to ever exist when our Negotiator-in-Chief inks this monumental deal.”
Carter’s new proposal gives the Office of the Secretary of the Interior six months after the bill’s potential passage to ensure that federal documents are updated reflecting the new name of “Red, White and Blueland.”
Meanwhile, in Denmark, thousands of Danish citizens have signed a satirical “Denmarkification” petition to buy California from the U.S. in response to Trump’s current bid to acquire Greenland.
The online petition, which has reportedly garnered more than 225,000 signatures, reads: “Los Angeles? More like Løs Ångeles. Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates.’”
“Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” the campaign website reads. “Let’s buy California from Donald Trump!”
There are five major incentives for Danes to sign, according to the petition: sunshine, tech, avocado toast, protecting the free world and Disneyland — which the petition calls to rename “Hans Christian Andersenland,” after the Danish fairy tale author.
“Mickey Mouse in a Viking helmet? Yes, please,” the petition reads.
“Trump isn’t exactly California’s biggest fan. He’s called it ‘the most ruined state in the Union’ and has feuded with its leaders for years. We’re pretty sure he’d be willing to part with it for the right price.”
In January, Trump said he wouldn’t rule out using force or economic pressure to make Greenland — a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark — part of the United States. Trump said it was a matter of national security for the U.S.
— With files from Global News’ Katie Scott
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