Trump Signs Order Renaming Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' Amid Canada Trade Tensions

US President Donald Trump has opened a new front in his geographic battles, this time targeting the border with Canada. During a press conference at the Oval Office on August 27, he signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America."

Lake Ontario lies in North America, on the border between Canada's Ontario province to the north and the US state of New York to the south. The name "Ontario" is believed to derive from the Wendat language of the Huron indigenous people, meaning "sparkling water," "big lake," or "beautiful lake."

President Trump declared the name change would take effect "immediately" and tied the move to trade tensions with Ottawa, accusing Canada of "ripping us off for a long time." He said: "They've never treated us well. Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They're mean people."

However, the actual text of the executive order stipulates that the Secretary of the Interior has 30 days to work with the US Board on Geographic Names on the renaming. Economic tensions between the two countries escalated last week when the US imposed a 50% tariff on Canadian goods worth nearly $20 billion. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by vowing "tit-for-tat" tariffs beginning September 8.

Prime Minister Carney dismissed Trump's order, writing on social media platform X: "This name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence. Canadians know that calling things by their right name means calling it Lake Ontario – yesterday, today, and forever."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford also spoke out: "For Canadians and the world, it's Lake Ontario. Now and forever." Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, declared: "New York will not call it that."

Legally, no binding international body has authority to decide the common name for a body of water shared between countries. The US Board on Geographic Names, which oversees the country's place names, said it "discourages name changes unless there is a compelling reason." Derek Alderman, a geography professor at the University of Tennessee, commented: "What we're seeing is unilateral naming by executive order or angry whim, without public discussion or real consideration of the impacts and consequences."

This is not the first time President Trump has renamed geographic features. Earlier, he signed orders to rename Denali to Mount McKinley and the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. International organizations like the United Nations continue to use traditional names. Google Maps also applies a policy of displaying different names depending on the user's location – users in the US see the new name, while users in other countries see both names.

Professor Gail Krantzberg from Canada's McMaster University emphasized: "He can do what he wants within legal limits. But since this is a transboundary water body, no other jurisdiction is obliged to comply. Ontario and Canada certainly will not."