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President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing the U.S. government to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America,” turning one of North America’s most recognizable bodies of water into the latest front in his increasingly bitter feud with Canada.
“This is official, effective immediately,” Trump said in the Oval Office after signing the order.
The move follows days of Trump threatening to change the lake’s name as his trade dispute with Canada has intensified. Trump has repeatedly accused Canada of taking advantage of the United States economically while continuing to criticize the country’s close relationship with its American neighbor.
Asked what message he was sending Canada by changing the name, Trump dismissed the idea that it was intended as a diplomatic signal.
“No message,” he said. “As you know, Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade.”
Trump added: “They don’t pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they’re not a state.”
The president said his administration had completed the paperwork necessary to make the change and had notified the relevant parties.
“So, we’ve done everything that you have to do, and this is official, effective immediately,” Trump said.
But whether Trump’s order can actually change what the lake is called beyond U.S. government usage is another question.
Lake Ontario has been known by its current name since at least the 1600s and is shared by the United States and Canada. Canadian officials have made clear they have no intention of adopting Trump’s preferred name.
Canadian maritime attorney Marc Isaacs told NBC News that a U.S. name change would not determine what Canada calls the lake.
“The Americans can call it whatever they want to call it,” Isaacs said. “It is Lake Ontario.”
Canada’s Industry Minister Mélanie Joly offered an equally blunt response earlier this week when Trump first threatened the change.
“We’ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period,” Joly said. “We’re proud of our Great Lakes.”
From the Gulf of Mexico to ‘Lake America’
Trump’s latest renaming effort follows a similar move involving the Gulf of Mexico.
Last year, Trump ordered the body of water to be referred to by the U.S. government as the “Gulf of America.” The Interior Department adopted the new terminology, and Google Maps changed its U.S. labeling, although the traditional name has continued to be used widely outside the United States.
Trump now appears to be taking that strategy into the Great Lakes.
And he suggested Thursday that Lake Ontario may not be the last geographic feature to receive a presidential makeover.
“Now all we need is an ocean,” Trump said.
He floated the possibility of changing the names of the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean or both.
“Maybe we’ll change them both,” Trump said.
The comments underscore how Trump’s approach to geographic names has become intertwined with his broader “America First” agenda and his willingness to use symbolic actions to assert U.S. power.
Name change lands in the middle of a trade war
The timing of the Lake Ontario order is particularly notable.
The United States and Canada are already locked in a major trade dispute, with tariffs and retaliatory measures straining relations between two countries whose economies are deeply intertwined.
Trump has repeatedly threatened Canada with additional economic pressure and has even suggested that the country should become the 51st U.S. state — rhetoric that Canadian leaders have repeatedly rejected.
The lake’s renaming therefore arrives as more than a bureaucratic change. It is another highly visible reminder of the increasingly antagonistic relationship between Washington and Ottawa.
For Trump, “Lake America” fits neatly into his broader effort to put an American stamp on institutions, policies and even geographic names.
For Canada, however, the response is considerably simpler:
It’s still Lake Ontario.
