WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America" and update the Geographic Names Information System within 30 days. Google Maps is expected to update the designation for U.S. users, following its practice with the Gulf of Mexico, where it displays "Gulf of America" domestically and "Gulf of Mexico" in Mexico.
The order came after trade negotiations between the United States and Canada collapsed. The U.S. recently imposed 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, with Canada announcing plans for dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs next month.
Trump declared the renaming effective immediately. While a U.S. president has broad discretion over how the United States labels its own landmarks, other countries are not bound to adopt such changes.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney swiftly rejected the move. "Things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario — today and forever," Carney said, emphasizing the name's history spanning more than 400 years, predating both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford dismissed the renaming: "It's Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever." Other Canadian premiers and ministers echoed similar objections.
Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes, forms a border between Ontario and New York. Four of the five Great Lakes—Ontario, Huron, Michigan, and Erie—derive their names from Indigenous words. Lake Superior's name comes from an anglicized French term.
This is not Trump's first attempt to rename a shared body of water. In 2025, upon taking office, he signed an order changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Mexico rejected that change, asserting that a single nation cannot unilaterally rename international waters.
The Gulf of Mexico renaming triggered a legal dispute. Google Maps responded by displaying "Gulf of America" for U.S. users, "Gulf of Mexico" for Mexican users, and "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)" for users in other countries. The White House subsequently barred news organizations from presidential events after they declined to adopt the "Gulf of America" name in reporting. The Associated Press sued the administration over the incident, and that case remains ongoing.
Reaction among U.S. officials has been mixed. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, a Trump appointee, publicly supported the change, writing on social media, "We're on it, Mr. President!" Burgum added that waters bordering the nation should reflect its values.
