US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered Lake Ontario to be renamed “Lake America” in the United States, escalating tensions with Canada and sparking an immediate rejection from Ottawa.
Trump signed an executive order directing the US federal government to adopt the new name for the Great Lake, which borders the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney swiftly rejected the move, insisting that the lake would continue to be known as Lake Ontario.
“We know that America is changing,” Carney said in a post on X.
“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”
Trump announced the decision after trade talks between the United States and Canada collapsed last week, leading to fresh tensions and retaliatory tariffs between the two longtime allies.
“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America,” Trump told journalists as he signed the executive order at the White House.
Asked why he was targeting Canada amid the growing dispute, Trump accused Canadian officials of treating the United States badly.
“The Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They’re nasty people,” he said.
The executive order directs the US Department of the Interior to take steps within 30 days to update the Geographic Names Information System and remove references to Lake Ontario from US federal geographical records.
It also directs federal agencies to use “Lake America” in official maps, documents, contracts and communications.
The order, however, applies to US federal references and does not compel Canada or international bodies to adopt the new name.
Lake Ontario is the smallest of the five Great Lakes by surface area. It forms part of the border between the United States and Canada and shares its name with the Canadian province of Ontario.
Trump’s latest move mirrors his January 2025 executive action to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” for US federal use, a decision that Mexico also rejected.
Carney said the name Lake Ontario dates back more than 400 years and originates from an Indigenous word meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”
The name predates the formation of both the United States and Canada, according to the Canadian prime minister.
Trump’s executive order argues that the United States has played a major role in protecting and maintaining the Great Lakes system and says the lake is an important economic resource for the country.
The White House directive instructs the Interior Department and the Board on Geographic Names to implement the name change in accordance with applicable US law.
Trump also hinted that other major bodies of water could be targeted for future name changes.
“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,” he said.
The move marks another escalation in the increasingly strained relationship between Washington and Ottawa, with the dispute now extending beyond trade to the naming of one of North America’s most prominent shared geographical landmarks.
