U.S. President Donald Trump on August 27 signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario, which borders New York State and Canada, as Lake America. The move is widely seen as symbolic, coming amid escalating trade tensions with Canada.
Speaking after signing the order updating the Interior Department's naming conventions, Trump said: “As you know, Canada has taken advantage of us in trade for a long time. Sad. Even militarily: we protect Canada without getting anything. We get nothing. They don't pay for our protection of Canada. But we still protect Canada.”
Both Canada and the United States are NATO members and share mutual defense obligations under the North Atlantic Treaty, the Ogdensburg Agreement, and other pacts.
Trump also declared: “We've notified everyone who needs to be notified. This is official and effective immediately.” A administration official noted that the majority of Lake Ontario's surface area lies within U.S. territory, and its deepest point is also under U.S. sovereignty. Previously, on the first day of his second term, Trump signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
When asked further, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “We have a gulf and a lake — now we just need an ocean. Maybe we'll have to rename the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we'll rename both.”
