Trump signs executive order to rename Lake Ontario 'Lake America'

President Donald Trump’s fight with Canada has spilled into Lake Ontario — er, Lake America?

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order that he said would “immediately” rename the body of water to “Lake America.” Canadian officials have said they will not recognize the new name.

The order directs the US government to adopt “Lake America” as the official name for federal maps, contracts, and documents.

It does not require private map providers to adopt the change.

Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether they would update their maps.

The move comes as relations between Washington and Ottawa rapidly deteriorate.

Trade talks between the neighboring countries broke down on Friday, which prompted new tariffs from the US.

Canada responded with its own tariffs, while Trump is threatening potential 50% tariffs on auto and steel imports from Canada, set for January 1.

Trump had threatened to rename the lake several times since the tensions flared.

In a video posted to Truth Social, Trump said renaming the lake only required “a good pen and some intelligence,” while crossing out the name on a paper map. “We’re on it, Mr.

President,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X. “The places and waters that border our nation and support our economy should reflect the greatness of the United States.” He’s already published a secretarial order to the Board on Geographic Names to “immediately rename the body of water known as Lake Ontario to Lake America.” Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, wrote in a post on X that “naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario.” “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big’,” Carney said. “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 added.

Several Democratic leaders mocked the renaming.

Tony Evers posted a video of himself signing a restaurant napkin that declared Lake Michigan “Lake Wisconsin.” “See, I can sign napkins that say things, too,” he wrote.

Kathy Hochul had a blunter response.

New York won’t be calling it that. https://t.co/FJQonEk8tI The lake — whichever name you give it — runs along New York State’s northwest and Ontario’s southwest borders.

It’s the smallest of the Great Lakes by surface area.

In the executive order, the US said it invested nearly $4 billion in “protecting the Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem in the last decade,” including providing nine of the eleven ice-breaking vessels.

According to a US Geological Survey update, the agency is updating the Geographic Names Information System to reflect the change.

It’s the second time that Trump has renamed a major body of water during his second term.

In January 2025, he signed an executive order to rename the “Gulf of Mexico” the “Gulf of America.” The change could soon extend beyond federal records and appear on widely used digital maps.

GNIS name changes have been cited by Google in the past as a reason to update names on its map.

When Mexico threatened legal action against Google over “Gulf of America” map changes following Trump’s executive order, the tech company responded in a letter that the change was made to reflect an update from the GNIS and would only be visible to US-based users.

Google added in the letter that Google Maps users in Mexico would continue to see “Gulf of Mexico,” while people elsewhere in the world would be shown both names.

MapQuest, the go-to directions website before Google Maps dominated the market, made it clear that they will not be changing the lake’s name.

The site posted a map of the lake on X, with “Lake Are We Doing This Again?” written over it.

The photo was made using MapQuest’s “Name Your Own Gulf” feature, a playful webpage that lets users type any name for a location and generates a shareable map displaying that label.

The feature was launched after Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico.

We’re not changing the name of Lake Ontario.

Name it whatever you want at your leisure: https://t.co/E2I0Ezd57W(tag us so we can see your work 🙂) pic.twitter.com/x8lIAMt6ab Users quickly posted their own names for the lake using the feature.

Some new names created for the lake include “Lake Epstein Files,” “Lake of Hormuz,” and “Lake Gulf of Mexico.”