Why is Trump renaming Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’? Executive order sparks Canada row
US President Donald Trump has ordered Lake Ontario to be renamed “Lake America,” saying the United States claims most of the lake’s volume because its deepest part lies on the American side.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the US Department of the Interior to update official references to the lake within 30 days and ensure that the federal government uses the name “Lake America.”
The move has immediately drawn a strong response from Canada, with Prime Minister Mark Carney insisting that the body of water will remain Lake Ontario “then, now and always.”
Trump cites US claim over most of the lake's volume
The executive order justifies the proposed name change by arguing that Lake Ontario's deepest part is on the US side and that the United States therefore “claims most of the Lake's volume.”
“We're going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America,” Trump told journalists while signing the order at the White House.
Two maps were displayed behind Trump's desk in the Oval Office during the signing. One showed the words “Lake America” in red over the lake, while another carried the header: “Making the Great Lakes Even Greater.”
Lake Ontario is the smallest of the five Great Lakes by surface area. It lies along the border between Canada and the United States, bordering Ontario province in Canada and New York state in the US.
The latest move echoes Trump's decision in January 2025 to unilaterally rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, a change that Mexico has also rejected.
Name change comes amid US-Canada trade tensions
Trump's order comes against the backdrop of worsening trade relations between the two longtime allies.
US-Canada trade talks collapsed at the last minute last week, leading both countries to impose tit-for-tat tariffs.
Asked why he was targeting an ally rather than America's adversaries, Trump said Canadian officials had “treated us very badly” and described them as “nasty people.”
Carney, however, rejected the name change and pointed to the history of the lake's existing name.
The Canadian prime minister said the name was around 400 years old, predating the formation of both the United States and Canada, and originated from an Indigenous word meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”
“We know that America is changing,” Carney said in a post on X.
“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario -- then, now and always.”
Canadians and Americans criticise move
The order also sparked criticism in Toronto, Canada's largest city, which sits on Lake Ontario's northwestern shore.
Mark Weicker, who lives in Kitchener west of Toronto, called Trump's move typical behaviour from the US president.
“Typical Trump. He's being a bully, he goads, he antagonizes,” he said.
Jake Marchuk, visiting from Alberta, said Trump was “just trying to egg us on.”
Megan Smith, from New Jersey, said: “It just makes him look stupid.”
Could Trump rename an ocean next?
Trump said he had been considering renaming Lake Ontario for “a long time” and went on to suggest that oceans bordering the United States could also be renamed.
“We have a gulf and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean,” he said.
“Maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both.”
The Lake Ontario order is the latest in a series of territorial and naming claims made by Trump during his second presidential term. He has previously said Canada should become the 51st US state, laid claim to Greenland and spoken about making Venezuela a state following the US capture of its leader Nicolas Maduro.
In recent days, Trump has also said he would make the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman a US territory, while the war with Tehran remains ongoing.
With AFP inputs