United States President Donald Trump signed a decree ordering the federal government to officially change the name of Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ within the United States. Sitting behind a desk in the White House next to a map displaying the text making the Great Lakes even greater, Trump signed the directive, which instructs the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the name in federal geographic registers within 30 days, according to NOS. Minister Doug Burgum stated that his department would carry out the change with pride.
Trump Signs Decree to Rename Lake Ontario to Lake America
The action marks a new development in an ongoing trade dispute between the United States and Canada, its second-largest trading partner, as reported by NRC. During the signing, Trump claimed that Canada has been ripping people off for a long time in trade and defense, while adding that they love the people of Canada, though he just does not think their representatives are doing a good job. The naming decision coincides with a broader economic conflict in which the U.S. imposed a 50 percent import tariff on Canadian goods valued at approximately $20 billion, prompting Canada to retaliate with comparable tariffs on American products.
Immediate Rejection from Canadian Officials
Canadian leaders swiftly rejected the renaming initiative. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney dismissed the decree, writing on X that Canadians also know you have to call reality by its name: Lake Ontario then, now, and always. Carney emphasized the Indigenous origin of the name, noting that the Wendat people derived it from the word Ontari’io, which translates to groot mooi meer
or refers to glittering waters. He highlighted that the 400-year-old name predates both the Canadian Confederation of 1867 and the U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Doug Ford, the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario—which is named after the body of water—issued a similarly firm rejection, stating that for Canadians and the rest of the world it is Lake Ontario, now and forever. Ford, who has taken a leading role in defending Canada against U.S. tariffs aimed at shifting automotive manufacturing plants across the border, recently engaged in a tense verbal exchange with Trump. Tim Houston, premier of Nova Scotia, also criticized the directive on social media, calling it true folly.
Domestic Opposition and International Limits
Within the United States, the decree faced immediate pushback from regional leaders. Kathy Hochul, governor of the state of New York which directly borders Lake Ontario, announced that her state will not adopt the new designation, stating plainly that New York is not going to call it that. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the action as droevig en zielig,
arguing that Trump turned to renaming a lake because he could not solve real problems for Americans.
Because Lake Ontario is a shared border water, Canada is under no obligation to recognize the new designation, and international organizations do not dictate official names for cross-border lakes. The measure mirrors Trump’s earlier second-term decree attempting to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America’, a change that was not recognized by Mexico or other nations, though adopted by select domestic tech platforms like Google Maps and Trump-leaning media. At the White House signing, Trump suggested further geographic renaming actions, remarking that they have a gulf and they have a lake, and all they are missing now is an ocean, and adding that the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans might be renamed next.
По теме
