US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the renaming of Lake Ontario as “Lake America” in the United States, in the latest escalation of tensions between Washington and Ottawa over trade.
Trump signed the order on Thursday at the White House, declaring the change effective immediately. The move follows his earlier threat to rename the lake amid a worsening trade dispute with Canada.
The executive order directs the US Department of the Interior to update the Geographic Names Information System and other federal references to reflect the new name. However, the order only applies to US federal usage and cannot compel Canada or international organisations to adopt “Lake America.”
Lake Ontario is one of North America’s five Great Lakes and lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and New York State. About 52 per cent of its surface area is in Canada, with the remainder in the United States under a 1909 treaty.
Move Comes Amid Trade Tensions
The name change comes as relations between the United States and Canada deteriorate over tariffs and a breakdown in recent trade negotiations.
Trump has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian goods, while Canada has announced retaliatory tariffs on American products. The escalating measures have strained economic relations between the two neighbouring countries.
Trump defended the renaming during the signing ceremony, saying Canada had treated the United States unfairly on trade and other issues.
The president has previously pursued similar geographic renaming efforts. In 2025, his administration changed the official US federal name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
Trump also suggested on Thursday that further geographic name changes could be considered, joking that after having a gulf and a lake, the United States might next need an ocean.
Canada Not Bound by Name Change
Despite Trump’s executive order, the new name does not automatically become internationally recognised.
The United States can determine the names used by its own federal agencies, maps and databases, but it cannot force Canada to change its terminology for a body of water shared by both countries. Canada has yet to indicate that it will recognise the new name.
The original name, Ontario, has Indigenous roots and comes from an Iroquoian term associated with “lake of shining waters.” The province of Ontario itself was later named after the lake.
The unusual renaming has added a symbolic dimension to an already tense US-Canada relationship, with the dispute now extending beyond tariffs and trade negotiations to the naming of one of North America’s major shared waterways.