Updated Aug. 27, 2026, 7:44 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America after threatening the action for days amid a rapidly escalating trade war with Canada.
Trump’s order, which he signed in the Oval Office on Aug. 27, instructs the Department of Interior and U.S. Board on Geographic Names to formalize the change within 30 days. As he signed the order, Trump compared the move to his action last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
“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.”
Lake Ontario’s name, which goes back to the 17th century, comes from the native Iroquois tribe’s word “Ontarí’io,” meaning “lake of shining waters,” according to the Center for Great Lakes Literacy. The name first started appearing on maps of European explorers in the 1660s.
A posterboard with a map of the Great Lakes and the slogan “Making the Great Lakes Greater” rested on an easel next to Trump as the president signed the order.
Ben Moss, the White House staff secretary, told Trump the order ensures the “lake once known as Lake Ontario will from this day forward be known as Lake America.” Although Lake Ontario forms the shoreline of Toronto, Canada’s largest city, Moss said most of the lake’s volume including its deepest parts is in U.S. territory.
“This will reflect that this is an American lake,” Moss said as he handed the president the order to sign.
Trump’s renaming of the lake follows his sweeping 50% tariffs slapped on many goods from Canada after trade negotiations between the two countries fell apart last week. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney countered by hitting U.S. exports with tariffs ranging from 15% to 50%. Trump has threatened to also double tariffs on automobiles and auto parts from Canada from 25% to 50%.
“The Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They’re nasty people,” Trump said, accusing Canada of imposing enormous tariffs on products from American farmers.
Carney says Lake Ontario remains the name ‘then, now and always’
Naming lakes, rivers and other geographic features in the United States is the responsibility of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which is made up of representatives from several federal agencies. Changing a name is typically the subject of a formal review process; however, the process was expedited with the president’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
Under the order, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the board are instructed to update the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to reflect the renaming of Lake Ontario as Lake America. All federal government references to the lake on agency maps, contracts and other documents must also reflect the renaming.
Carney, in a statement following Trump’s order, said the lake’s name for Canadians will always remain Lake Ontario despite Trump’s action.
“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 said. “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”
It’s unlikely the rest of the world will follow Trump’s renaming either.
Despite Trump’s rebranding of the Gulf of Mexico last year, the international community, including Mexico, still refers to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico, not the Gulf of America.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
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