Trump Renames Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’

US President Donald Trump has officially ordered the renaming of Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” marking another symbolic geographic name change amid escalating tensions between the United States and Canada.

BREAKING: President Trump officially changes the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

"If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean." 👀 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/OZOmfibisP

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 27, 2026

Trump signed the executive order on August 27, directing the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to update federal records and maps. The order instructs officials to remove references to Lake Ontario from the U.S.

Geographic Names Information System and replace them with “Lake America.”
The lake, one of North America's five Great Lakes, is shared by the U.S. state of New York and Canada's province of Ontario. The U.S. order applies to federal usage, meaning Washington cannot require Canada or international bodies to adopt the new name.

The move comes amid a sharp deterioration in US-Canada trade relations. Trump had first floated the renaming proposal on August 25, linking it to the trade dispute with Ontario. The decision follows his earlier push to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

Speaking about the idea, Trump joked: “If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean.”

The White House says the new name recognizes the lake's importance to American history, commerce, defense and the Great Lakes ecosystem.