President Donald Trump’s decision to sign an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” has been a spectacular flop with voters — and one very high-profile political podcaster, according to a new analysis.
Two “Morning Joe” co-hosts Wednesday morning discussed Joe Rogan's dismissal of the move as a mere 14 percent of Americans voters report support for the decision.
The segment begins with a clip of a smirking Rogan.
“It’s to distract you from the fact we are in a war we can’t win with Iran — it doesn’t make any sense,” Rogan said. “Who cares if it’s Lake Ontario? It’s a good name. We’ve had that name forever."
Co-host Jonathan Lemire and Willie Geist were quick to pile on.
Geist reported that a recent Ipsos/Reuters poll found 63 percent of respondents opposed Lake Ontario’s renaming, a mere 14 percent supported the decision and 21 percent said they weren’t sure how they feel about it.
"Perhaps because it was so, so deeply stupid,” Geist said with a laugh. "Jonathan Lemire, this again, the case of President Trump diving headfirst into an issue that apparently has no audience.”
"I don't say this a lot, but Joe Rogan? Exactly right," Lemire said. "It's meant to be a distraction; it's a culture war. And, you know, it's to get us to talk about something else. But there is a serious underbelly here, which is the fact that this trade war with Canada, as we just discussed, is going to have real political implications and not good ones for Republicans. And frankly, Willie, it also shows Trump's just running out of ideas. We already did the Gulf of America. Now it's Lake of America.”