President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 27 to officially change the name of Lake Ontario to ''Lake America'', a measure that takes effect immediately and comes amid a growing trade and diplomatic dispute between the United States and Canada.
The decision reinforces Trump's message that Washington must more firmly defend its economic and strategic interests against countries that have benefited for years from trade relations with the United States without offering sufficiently favorable conditions to Americans.
''Canada has been cheating us for a long time on trade, very sadly,'' Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office after signing the order. The president also questioned the cost to the United States of defending Canada and reminded that the neighboring country has received U.S. protection for decades.
Trump added that Canada wants to be treated as if it were a state of the United States, but emphasized that ''it is not a state''.
President Donald Trump has renamed ''Lake Ontario'' to ''Lake America'' effective immediately
As part of the order, the Department of the Interior will update the Geographic Names Information System, the federal system responsible for recording the geographic names used by U.S. agencies. The Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, publicly supported the measure with a message that said: ''Let's Make the Great Lakes Great Again!'', echoing Trump's well-known political slogan.
The name change comes as relations between Washington and Ottawa are going through one of their tensest moments in recent years. The differences have intensified due to U.S. tariffs and the trade response announced by the Canadian government.
The Canadian socialist Prime Minister, Mark Carney, rejected the decision and stated this Friday that the lake will continue to be called ''Lake Ontario''. According to Carney, that name has over 400 years of history and comes from a Wendat word related to the description of the lake as beautiful and large.
Carney argued that the name predates both the Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence. However, the Trump administration presents the change as part of a broader policy aimed at reaffirming the identity and national interests of the United States.
Trump had already taken a similar measure on his first day in office in January 2025, when he ordered U.S. federal agencies to use ''Gulf of America'' instead of ''Gulf of Mexico''. The president even joked on August 27 that now the United States has ''a gulf and a lake'' and that it might be time to change the name of the Atlantic or the Pacific as well.
