President Donald Trump expressed bewilderment late Friday night in a post on Truth Social, attacking New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) after she declined to refer to Lake Ontario as "Lake America" and accused the president of prioritizing symbolism over substantive issues such as inflation.

"Governor Kathy Hochul is for Canada, a Country that has been ripping off New York State for years, especially under her Administration, instead of the good 'ol U.S.A," Trump wrote. "Can you imagine her saying that she won't respect or acknowledge LAKE AMERICA."

Trump claimed that "Dumocrats" such as Hochul were "bad for our country." Hochul, in turn, pointed to Trump's mounting conflict with Iran and his trade war with Canada as more pressing concerns.

"New York families are being hit with higher costs for energy, groceries, and prescription drugs because of Trump's actions," Hochul wrote on X. "Instead of fixing these issues, the president is trying to rename Lake Ontario. Shame on him for deflecting from the real needs of Americans."

Hochul also noted that the renaming carried an unintended message: it would change the mnemonic acronym that students use to memorize the five Great Lakes — Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior — from HOMES to SHAME.

Trump's Thursday order to rename Lake Ontario has drawn criticism from analysts, who argue it is risky to antagonize one of the nation's top trading partners by reviving a move that proved deeply unpopular ahead of the midterm elections. Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes straddling the United States and Canada, bordering New York State and the Canadian province of Ontario. As a binational body of water, its name — like that of the broader Great Lakes system — is governed in practice by joint U.S.-Canada arrangements such as the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 and the International Joint Commission, which coordinates shared management of the lakes, underscoring why unilateral renaming by one country carries diplomatic as well as symbolic weight.

The exchange follows broader tensions between Washington and Ottawa amid an ongoing trade dispute between the two countries (Al Jazeera). Canada ranks among the United States' largest trading partners, with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual two-way trade crossing the border, much of it moving through New York's crossings and Great Lakes shipping lanes — a stake that gives the naming fight a backdrop of concrete economic ties beyond the rhetorical spat.