President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America," escalating a trade dispute with Canada. The lake is one of the five Great Lakes, shared between the two countries, and shares its name with the Canadian province of Ontario.
The order follows last week's collapse of US-Canada trade talks and 50% US tariffs on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods, with Canada retaliating with matching tariffs on $20 billion in US imports. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the name change, noting the Wendat-origin name "Lake Ontario" is more than 400 years old and "predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States."
Trump said he had considered the change "for a long time" and referenced his earlier renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," hinting at possible future renamings of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said the department would implement the order; New York Governor Kathy Hochul said her state "won't be calling it" Lake America, and a Democratic lawmaker announced a bill to nullify the change.