Language has evolved far far beyond its original roots as a medium for communication, and has now become a symbol of political identity. "If you pronounce words differently, well, you must clearly not share our values."
https://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/09/barack_obama
> Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.
I'd also say that language as a political/shared identity is not a new phenomenon.
It's ridiculous to think you should pronounce the name of any geographic entity by the way the people native to the area do.
Which one did he get political heat for?
Also, language has been about politics for thousands of years...see the shibboleth story in the Judges(old testament, ~3400 years ago).
To illustrate, there's a scene from "Better Off Dead" where the mother repeatedly says "Frawnch" in place of "French" trying to affect an authentic pronounciation, with predictably disastrous results https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhW7rpFhr2k