Trump orders Lake Ontario to be renamed ‘Lake America’

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he is renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The order, signed in the White House, comes as tensions grow between the United States and Canada amid what the administration described as a spiralling trade war.

What the president said

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said:

“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America,”

and added:

“The Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They’re nasty people.”

Context and precedent cited by Trump

The move follows an earlier change cited by the president: in January 2025 he said the Gulf of Mexico had been renamed the “Gulf of America.” Trump told reporters that the lake renaming had been on his mind for some time, saying:

“The lake change, Lake of America, was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, actually. As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico, we changed it, and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,”

and adding:

“So, if you think about it, we have a Gulf and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

Reaction and international implications

The article notes Canada is unlikely to accept the name change. The announcement was reported by AFP and carried by the IOL news site.

What remains

Trump’s order and his comments frame the renaming as a unilateral act tied to bilateral tensions. Reporting identifies the rename as taking place amid a spiralling trade dispute between the United States and Canada.