Trump Signs Order Seeking to Rename Lake Ontario As ‘ Lake America’
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the US government to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” escalating tensions with Canada just days after trade negotiations between the two countries broke down.
Trump signed the order in the Oval Office on Thursday. Asked whether the move was intended as a message to Canada, the president said it was not, though he added that the country’s northern neighbor “has been ripping us off for a long time on trade.”
“We notified all of the various people that we have to notify. So we’ve done everything that you have to do, and this is official, effective immediately.”
The announcement comes during one of the most strained periods in recent US-Canada relations. Trade talks collapsed last week, after which Washington imposed new 50% tariffs on $20bn (C$28bn) worth of Canadian goods. Canada has said it will answer with “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs beginning next month.
Trump also accused Canada of seeking the benefits of being part of the United States without actually being one, saying: “They don’t pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they’re not a state.”
Canadian leaders quickly rejected Trump’s attempt to rename the lake.
Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed to the name’s centuries-old history, saying Lake Ontario had been known by that name for more than 400 years—long before either the Canadian Confederation or the US Declaration of Independence.
Carney also highlighted the Indigenous roots of the name, writing that “Ontario” derives from the Wendat word “Ontari’io,” which he said means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”
“We know that the United States is changing — their trade relations, their foreign policy, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadian women and men also know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario — today and forever.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford delivered a similar response, writing: “It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.” Other Canadian ministers and provincial premiers also dismissed the new designation.
Canadian Industry Minister Mélanie Joly had already brushed aside Trump’s threats to rename the lake earlier in the week. “We’ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period,” she said. “We’re proud of our Great Lakes.”
Lake Ontario is the smallest of the five Great Lakes and forms part of the international boundary between the Canadian province of Ontario and New York state. Four of the Great Lakes — Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie — have names derived from indigenous words, while Lake Superior’s name comes from an anglicized French term.
The lake also gave its name to Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, which includes both Toronto and the national capital, Ottawa.
Although Trump has significant authority over the names the US federal government uses for geographic features, his executive order cannot compel Canada or other countries to adopt the new name.
No single internationally recognized organization is responsible for naming shared international waters.
The executive order supports the new designation by emphasizing the lake’s physical and historical connections to the United States. It says the deepest portions of Lake Ontario lie within US territory and asserts that the United States contains most of the lake’s water by volume. The order also describes the lake as having played a longstanding role in American “exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense.”
Under Trump’s order, the US Department of the Interior has 30 days to update the Geographic Names Information Service, the federal government’s official database for domestic geographic names.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum welcomed the announcement and quickly signaled that his department would carry it out. “We’re on it, Mr. President!” Burgum wrote.
“The places and waters that border our nation and support our economy should reflect the greatness of the United States,” he said, adding that the US Geological Survey “maps our country for the world to see, and we are PROUD to implement your Executive Order to rename LAKE AMERICA.”
Reaction among US politicians, however, was sharply divided.
Democratic lawmaker Debbie Dingell of Michigan — which borders four of the five Great Lakes — called Trump’s order “idiotic” and said she planned to introduce legislation in Congress that would reverse the change.
“The Great Lakes are a shared treasure that generations of Americans and Canadians have worked together to protect,” Dingell wrote.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, said her state would continue referring to the body of water as Lake Ontario. New York is the only US state bordering the lake.
Marc Isaacs, a Canadian maritime attorney, told NBC News before Trump signed the order that neither the US nor the Canadian government controls the naming rights to the lake, meaning Washington’s decision would impose no obligation on Canada or other countries. “The Americans can call it whatever they want to call it,” Isaacs said. “It is Lake Ontario.”
The move echoes one of Trump’s earliest geographic-renaming efforts after returning to the White House in 2025, when he signed an order directing the federal government to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
Mexico rejected that change, arguing that one country cannot unilaterally rename an international body of water shared with other nations. The dispute also spilled into the technology industry after Google changed how the gulf appeared in its Maps service.
Apple also adopted “Gulf of America” in its Maps service following Trump’s directive, even as the new terminology failed to gain widespread acceptance internationally.
Google Maps users in the United States see “Gulf of America”, while users in Mexico continue to see “Gulf of Mexico”. People accessing the service elsewhere see “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”.
That name change also triggered a dispute between the Trump administration and the Associated Press.
The White House barred AP journalists from some presidential events after the news organization declined to use “Gulf of America” as its standard terminology. The AP later sued the administration, and the resulting legal fight remains unresolved.
And Trump suggested Lake Ontario may not be the end of his renaming campaign. Pointing to the Gulf of America and his new designation for the lake, he mused Thursday about doing something similar with an ocean.
“Now, all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”
US and Canadian officials have traded accusations in recent days over which side was responsible for the collapse of trade negotiations. Both governments have said the other introduced last-minute demands that made an agreement impossible.
Nevertheless, there were indications Thursday that negotiations could eventually resume.
Canadian US trade minister Dominic LeBlanc said Washington had withdrawn some demands concerning French-language labeling requirements, which Canada had identified as one of the sticking points in the talks.
The US has maintained that it never made demands involving language requirements.
For now, however, the fight over trade has been joined by a fight over geography — with Trump saying he has completed the necessary US paperwork to call the shared lake Lake America, and Canadian leaders making clear they have no intention of following him.
Moumita Basuroychowdhury is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest. After earning an economics degree at Cornell University, she moved to NYC to pursue her MFA in creative writing. She enjoys reporting on science, business and culture news. You can reach her at moumita.b@thenationaldigest.com.
