US President Donald Trump has moved to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, signing an executive order that directs his administration to begin the process of changing the name of one of the five Great Lakes shared by the United States and Canada.
Trump signed the order on Thursday, August 27, 2026, saying the change was “official, effective immediately”. He also said his administration had “filed all the necessary papers, documents” needed to make the new name official in the United States.
Under the executive order, the US Department of the Interior has 30 days to update the name in the Geographic Names Information System, the official US repository for domestic geographic names.
The move comes amid a growing trade dispute between Washington and Ottawa. Trade talks broke down late last week, after which the US imposed new 50% tariffs on $20 billion (C$28 billion) worth of Canadian goods. Canada has said it will respond with “dollar for dollar” counter tariffs next month.
Trump has repeatedly raised the idea of renaming the lake in social media posts during the dispute, linking the proposal to his wider criticism of Canada over trade.
As he signed the order in the Oval Office, Trump said the decision was not meant as a direct message to Canada but accused the country of “ripping us off for a long time on trade”.
Trump said he had been considering the name change “for a long time”.
“So if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake,” Trump said.
“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.”
The proposed change has been rejected in Canada, where officials have made it clear they will continue using the name Lake Ontario.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed to the lake’s long history, saying its name can be traced back more than 400 years. In a social media post on Thursday, he noted that the name existed before both Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence.
“We know that the United States is changing. Their trade relations, their foreign policy, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” he wrote. “Canadian women and men also know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario – today and forever.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also rejected the proposed change, writing on social media: “It's Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.”
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said: “We're into some real foolishness now. It's Lake Ontario, buddy.”
Industry Minister Melanie Joly said on Tuesday: “We'll always call it Lake Ontario.”
Lake Ontario is the smallest of the five Great Lakes and lies along the border between the Canadian province of Ontario and New York state. Four of the lakes — Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie — have names that come from Indigenous words, while Lake Superior takes its name from an anglicised French word.
The latest move follows a similar decision by Trump after he returned to the White House in 2025, when he signed an order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Mexico rejected that change, arguing that one country cannot rename a shared body of international water.
The Gulf of America decision also sparked a legal dispute involving Google after the technology company changed the name on its maps. Users in the US see “Gulf of America”, while users in Mexico see “Gulf of Mexico”. In other countries, Google Maps displays “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”.
The White House also barred Associated Press reporters from presidential events after the news agency declined to use “Gulf of America” in its coverage. The AP sued the Trump administration, and the legal battle remains ongoing.
There is no single international body responsible for deciding the names of international waters. While the US president has broad powers over how landmarks are officially recognised within the country, other nations are not required to accept such changes.
The disagreement over Lake Ontario has also drawn criticism from US lawmakers.
Democratic lawmaker Debbie Dingell of Michigan, a state that borders four of the five Great Lakes, said she would introduce a bill in Congress seeking to cancel Trump's name change. She called the order “idiotic”.
She wrote, “The Great Lakes are a shared treasure that generations of Americans and Canadians have worked together to protect”.
Other Democratic lawmakers criticised the decision online and urged the administration to focus on resolving the trade dispute with Canada. Some also mocked Trump's proposal by suggesting new names for other landmarks.
Wisconsin's governor joked that he had renamed Lake Michigan Lake Wisconsin, posting a video of himself signing a napkin.
“I just renamed Lake Michigan Lake Wisconsin,” he wrote. “See, I can sign napkins that say things, too,” he added.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, whose state is the only US state bordering Lake Ontario, said it “won't be calling it” Lake America.
Trump's Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, however, welcomed the decision and said his department was ready to carry out the order.
“We're on it, Mr. President!” he wrote.
“The places and waters that border our nation and support our economy should reflect the greatness of the United States,” he said, adding that the US Geological Survey “maps our country for the world to see, and we are PROUD to implement your Executive Order to rename LAKE AMERICA”.
The name dispute comes as Washington and Ottawa continue to face strained relations over trade, although there was a sign Thursday that negotiations could resume in the future.
Canadian US trade minister Dominic LeBlanc said the US had withdrawn some of its demands on French-language labelling and was confirming that measures supporting French language and Canadian culture would not face future US trade action.
“We look forward to further constructive US clarifications on their other positions, which would create the possibility of a mutually beneficial trade agreement that respects Canadian sovereignty”.
The trade talks had collapsed late on Friday night, with both countries blaming the other for seeking last-minute changes to a tentative agreement.