Donald Trump signed an order directing the United States to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" amid escalating trade disputes with Canada.
On 28 August 2026, Donald Trump, President of the United States, signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario—one of the five Great Lakes bordering both the U.S. and Canada—as "Lake America," stating the change is officially effective immediately.
Trump said the U.S. government has submitted all necessary documents to implement the name change and ordered the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the official geographic names database to reflect the new name.
Previously, Trump had threatened to rename Lake Ontario multiple times on social media during trade disputes. This action occurs amid increasingly tense U.S.-Canada relations following failed trade negotiations last week, with the U.S. imposing a 50% import tariff on approximately $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, while Canada plans retaliatory tariffs on a value-for-value basis next month.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that Canada will continue to refer to the lake as "Lake Ontario," emphasizing that the name has a history of more than 400 years, predating both the founding of the Canadian Confederation and the U.S. declaration of independence.
Although the U.S. president has authority to officially designate place names for domestic use, other countries are not obligated to accept such changes, and no international organization has the authority to universally determine the names of seas or water bodies shared between countries.