On Thursday, August 27, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” within the United States. The move, part of escalating trade tensions with Canada, was formalized through an executive order updating the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service.

Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes shared by the U.S. and Canada, also lends its name to the Canadian province of Ontario. Trump’s renaming effort cannot compel Canada to adopt the new name.

The president signed the order while seated at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, with a large map of the Great Lakes behind him prominently displaying “Lake America” over Lake Ontario. Another map bore the slogan “MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN GREATER.”

Trump criticized Canada’s trade stance, calling the country “the worst” to deal with and saying, “They feel entitled, and we can’t have that.” He also described Canadian officials as “nasty people.”

This renaming echoes a similar action by Trump last year when he attempted to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” a change that has not been widely adopted outside the White House.

The renaming comes amid a trade war between the U.S. and Canada, following a series of tariffs announced by the Trump administration last year. Canadian Premier Doug Ford has indicated that “everything is on the table” in terms of retaliatory measures.

Sources