Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker mocked Donald Trump’s executive order declaring a new name for Lake Ontario by slapping a name he knows very well on Chicago’s Trump Tower.
Pritzker, 61, responded to the White House’s X post Thursday afternoon by posting a picture of the president’s riverside building. Pritzker crossed out Trump’s name, replacing it with “Natalie.”
“EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Trump Tower is renamed to NATALIE TOWER!” Pritzker wrote, echoing the White House’s phrasing.
Natalie Harp, 35, is one of the 80-year-old president’s closest aides. Trump’s executive assistant since his first day back in office, Harp, a former host on right-wing network One America News, makes $150,000 annually to be the president’s “human printer,” showing him stories, conducting internet searches for things he wants to hear, and helping him post on Truth Social.
Harp’s closeness to the president drew fresh attention last week when the Daily Beast published two adoring letters she wrote to Trump in 2023.
“You are all that matters to me,” Harp writes. “I don’t want to ever let you down.” She also calls Trump her “Guardian and Protector in this life.”
Trump, in turn, has boasted that Harp will “never leave” him.
Pritker’s reference to Harp follows Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell, 72, similarly mentioning the devoted White House aide in the context of the president’s fixation on Lake Ontario.
“Let’s just call it Lake Natalie so we know you’ll start protecting our Great Lakes,” the Michigan lawmaker wrote on X.
Trump’s executive order obviously cannot make Canada refer to the border lake as he pleases. It only directs the Interior Department to update the Geographic Names Information System.
When asked Thursday what the point of the renaming was, Trump initially claimed, “no message,” but then added: “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade.”
About that escalating trade war, the White House on Thursday attempted to boast that it had the upper hand by posting a photograph of a bald eagle with its talons on the neck of a Canada goose. But X users soon noted that that encounter resulted in a less-than-ideal outcome for the White House: the goose prevailed.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast about Pritzker’s and Dingell’s posts.
