U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America amid a trade war with Canada. Here's what we know
The Great Lakes mostly have anglicized Indigenous names — Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie — and one anglicized French name, Superior. But if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on his latest threat amid the trade war, the smallest of those lakes could soon have an anglicized Italian name instead, “Lake America,” named directly for the United States of America, which in turn takes its name from Amerigo Vespucci, the 16th century Italian explorer. “The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday. The National Post explains the diplomatic and legal boundaries of Great Lakes nomenclature, and why they won’t do much to stop a determined president.
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Well, yes. He’s the president, and as such can make executive orders regarding the naming practices of federally regulated entities in the United States, such as the Coast Guard, and, more to the point, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, and its Domestic Names Committee, which is part of the Department of the Interior. Trump has done this sort of thing before, as in Executive Order 14172, known as “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” which was passed on the day of his second inauguration last year.
That’s the one that ordered the Gulf of Mexico be referred to as Gulf of America, and indeed Google Maps today lists it as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).” It also officially renamed Denali, the mountain in Alaska, as Mount McKinley. However, it is contrary to treaties and agreements the United States claims to abide by.
The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP( TS: Aug 25 2026, 6:58 AM ET )… pic.twitter.com/X5TxYS8TaV
