Trump Signs Order Renaming Lake Ontario 'Lake America' as Carney Pushes Back

WASHINGTON —

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," the latest escalation in a trade fight with Canada that has already produced tariffs on billions of dollars of goods on both sides of the border.

Trump signed the order at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, with a map of the Great Lakes propped up behind him showing "Lake America" in red letters over Lake Ontario. "We're going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America," he said, according to CBS News. The order itself gives the Interior Department 30 days to update the Geographic Names Information System, the federal registry of place names, and directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to work with the Board on Geographic Names to strike references to Lake Ontario from federal maps and documents.

The White House order argues the lake is part of "American heritage," noting that the US Coast Guard supplies nine of the 11 icebreakers operating on the Great Lakes and that the United States has put nearly $4 billion into Great Lakes conservation over the past decade, according to the order. Trump cannot compel Canada or any other country to adopt the new name; he has similar authority only over how the US government refers to the lake.

Carney and other Canadians reject the name

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the change in a post on X, noting that the lake's name predates both the Confederation of Canada and the US Declaration of Independence by more than 400 years, according to CBS News. "We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms," Carney wrote, adding that "naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario, then, now and always."

Other Canadian officials piled on. Industry Minister Melanie Joly said earlier in the week, "We'll always call it Lake Ontario," the BBC reported. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston wrote on social media, "We're into some real foolishness now. It's Lake Ontario, buddy," while Ontario Premier Doug Ford dismissed the move as "a lot of rhetoric." New York Governor Kathy Hochul, whose state borders the lake, told CBS News, "New York won't be calling it that."

Representative Mike Kennedy of New York called the order "pathetic" in a statement, saying Canadian tourism and spending in his state have fallen 26 percent and 28 percent, respectively, since the trade dispute began.

Part of a wider trade fight

The order follows the collapse of US-Canada trade talks last week and new US tariffs of 50 percent on $20 billion (C$28 billion) worth of Canadian goods, which took effect over the weekend, according to the BBC. Canada has said it will impose matching tariffs on American products, including steel, dairy, appliances and farm equipment, starting September 8.

Asked what message the renaming sent to Canada, Trump said there was none but added that "Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade," according to CBS News. He also suggested he might not stop at lakes. "We have a gulf and we have a lake," he said, referring to his 2025 renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. "Now, all we need is an ocean."