President Trump has yet again declared a controversial renaming, this time asserting that he is changing the name of one of the Great Lakes. Trump’s name change declaration is a shot at Canada after the country’s leadership rejected a new trade deal due to demands from the Trump administration that the Canadians found unacceptable and comes amid tensions and tariffs between the two countries.
Trump orders lake to be relabeled
On Thursday, President Trump issued an executive order “changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America.” In the Oval Office video announcing the order, White House aide Benjamin Moss explains that the order directs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to incorporate the name change through the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the agency within the government responsible for geographic data. In the video, a large map, titled “Making the Great Lakes Even Greater” shows the Great Lakes, with a large “Lake America” label for Lake Ontario.
The move, largely seen as a slight against Canada, comes amid a trade war between the two countries. Over the weekend, Canada stepped away from talks meant to implement a new trade deal between the two countries. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney explained that Canada’s negotiators “have worked hard, in good faith, to defend the interests of Canadians throughout these negotiations up until the very last minute. However, last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.” Trump, who has repeatedly antagonized Canada by threatening to annex it as the 51st U.S. state, responded to the end of negotiations by implementing 50% tariffs on Canadian goods, leading the Canadians to respond with retaliatory tariffs against U.S. products.
Trump’s misguided name change rejected
Trump’s name-changing gesture appears to be an attempt to provoke Canada by slighting the Province of Ontario, but the intended insult is likely based on a misunderstanding of history. Lake Ontario is not named after the Canadian province; rather, the province was named after the lake. As Prime Minister Carney explained in a post on X, the lake’s name is derived from an Indigenous term for the body of water. “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big’. 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.” While giving a history lesson concerning the Ontario name, Carney also expressed defiance at Trump’s relabeling. “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” Carney wrote. He added “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”
Trump’s insult, however historically misguided, has not gone unnoticed by other government officials on both sides of the United States/Canada border. Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared “It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.”
“We’re into some real foolishness now,” wrote Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston. “It’s Lake Ontario, buddy.”
On the United States side of the lake, New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded to the White House’s “Lake America” announcement, writing “New York won’t be calling it that.”
Trump’s renaming tactic continues
The name-changing gesture concerning Lake Ontario is not the first time Trump has made such a move, and it is likely not the last. During a 2025 dispute with Mexico over issues such as border security, Trump announced that he was renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” Amid the ongoing war that Trump launched against Iran that led to the country effectively closing access to the Strait of Hormuz, Trump has threatened to annex the strait and to rename either “the Strait of America” or even “the Strait of Trump.” And while talking to reporters about the “Lake America” name change, Trump indicated that the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans might be next. “We have a gulf and we have a lake,” Trump said to reporters. “Now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”
Trump’s name change announcements have had limited practical effects, but they have symbolized his aggressive and antagonistic approach to foreign policy, even with close American allies. The latest trade row with Canada is far from over, and Trump’s attempt to insult Ontario indicates that he is not seeking to lower the temperature as the trade dispute continues.