Trump Signs Order Renaming Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America” in the United States, escalating his trade war with Canada and drawing sharp rebukes from Canadian officials and U.S. Democrats. The order directs the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service within 30 days, though Trump cannot force Canada or international bodies to adopt the change.

The move comes amid escalating trade tensions between Washington and Ottawa. The U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods after trade negotiations collapsed last week, and Canada has announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on $20 billion worth of American goods, effective September 8, according to AP News.

A Controversial Renaming

Trump signed the order at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, with a large map of the Great Lakes displayed behind him. Over Lake Ontario, in big red letters, the map read “Lake America.” Another map beside it proclaimed “MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN GREATER.”

“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” Trump said before signing the order, as reported by CBS News. The president claimed the change was “official, effective immediately,” though the executive order itself gives the Interior Department 30 days to update the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).

The executive order cites the U.S. Coast Guard’s provision of 9 of 11 ice-breaking vessels on the Great Lakes and nearly $4 billion in U.S. investment in Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem protection over the last decade. It also notes that the deepest parts of the lake’s waters lie within U.S. territory.

The renaming follows Trump’s January 2025 executive order that changed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” a move that Mexico rejected and that remains the subject of an ongoing legal dispute with The Associated Press over the news agency’s refusal to adopt the name.

Canada’s Firm Rejection

Canadian officials responded swiftly and firmly to the order. Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the move, invoking the lake’s Indigenous roots and noting that the name predates both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

“The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,” Carney wrote on X, as BBC News reported. “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”

The name “Lake Ontario” comes from the Huron Indigenous people’s word “oniatarí:io,” meaning “lake of shining waters.” The province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake. The body of water has already survived attempts by the French in the 17th and 18th centuries to rename it, as Al Jazeera noted in its explainer on the legal and practical limits of the name change.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has traded personal insults with Trump in recent days, said on X: “It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston added, “We’re into some real foolishness now. It’s Lake Ontario, buddy.”

Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly had already signaled Canada’s position days earlier, telling CTV News that “We’ll always call it Lake Ontario, period.”

Bipartisan U.S. Opposition

The order also drew criticism from U.S. Democrats, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose state shares the lake’s southern shore. “New York won’t be calling it that,” Hochul wrote on X in response to the White House announcement.

Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan announced plans to introduce the “Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act” to nullify the name change, calling Trump’s order “idiotic.” In a statement, she said: “Donald Trump can sign all the Executive Orders he wants, but it will always be Lake Ontario. Canada is not our enemy. It is our neighbor, our ally, and one of Michigan’s most important economic partners.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries criticized the move on social media, writing: “Donald Trump picked a fight with Canada that is costing you money. Instead of fixing it, he is spending your tax dollars to rename Lake Ontario.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland called it “more evidence we elected a toddler as President,” while Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota quipped, “On behalf of the great Lake Superior, I call that superiorly stupid,” as Time Magazine reported.

Legal Limits and Historical Precedent

There is no single international body that determines names of international bodies of water, and Trump has wide latitude over how the U.S. federal government recognizes geographic places and landmarks. However, Canada and international organizations are under no obligation to adopt the new name. The International Hydrographic Bureau standardizes names for navigational purposes but does not enforce them, and the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names provides guidance without enforcement authority.

Derek Alderman, a professor of geography at the University of Tennessee, told Al Jazeera that the order represents “an attempt at erasing Indigenous culture from the map, exerting not just an ‘America-first’ ideology across the continent but a decidedly neocolonial geographic imagination.” He added that “the cost at stake with this renaming Lake Ontario is the loss of yet another democratic process in the United States.”

Gail Krantzberg, a professor at McMaster University, noted that while Trump “can do what he wants within legal limits,” the change “will be challenged and because it is a transnational water body, no other jurisdiction needs to abide. Ontario and Canada certainly will not.”

Trade War Context

The renaming is the latest salvo in a rapidly deteriorating U.S.-Canada relationship. Trump has repeatedly suggested Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, alternating between joking tones and seemingly serious assertions. He has also threatened new 50% tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts, and steel.

Trump said the order was not meant to send a particular geopolitical message, but added, “Canada’s been ripping us off for a long time” on trade and military issues. “They wanted to be treated like a state and they’re not a state,” he said. “We just can’t do that anymore.”

The president also suggested his push to rename bodies of water may not be finished. “So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” Trump said. “So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them.”

What’s Next

The executive order gives the Interior Department 30 days to implement the name change in U.S. federal records. The director of the U.S. Geological Survey has announced the change has been made and will appear in printed documents within days.

However, as The Guardian noted, Trump has no authority to rename Canada’s portion of the lake, nor to compel Canada, international legal bodies, international mapmakers, or the rest of the world to adopt the new name. Democratic lawmakers are preparing legislative challenges, and Canada has made clear it will continue to call the lake by its historical name.

Meanwhile, there was a hint of a possible path back to the negotiating table. Canadian U.S. trade minister Dominic LeBlanc said the U.S. had withdrawn some of its demands around French labelling requirements, one of the sticking points in the collapsed trade talks. As the trade war continues to escalate, the question of what to call a shared body of water has become yet another flashpoint in a relationship that has deteriorated dramatically since Trump returned to the White House.