US President Donald Trump has ordered Lake Ontario to be renamed “Lake America”, in a move likely to face opposition from Canada amid escalating trade tensions between the two countries.
Signing the order at the White House, Trump said the name change would take effect immediately, while criticising Canadian officials for what he described as their unfriendly treatment of the United States.
The move follows Trump’s earlier decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” in January 2025.
Trump said he had been considering renaming Lake Ontario for some time and drew a comparison with the Gulf of Mexico, saying the new name had become widely used in the United States.
He also joked that the US could eventually rename the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, saying the country now had “a Gulf and a lake” and might need an ocean as well.
In his inauguration speech last January, Trump announced that the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America.
A month later, Google updated the name on its Maps platform for users in the United States in line with Trump’s executive order.
Google said users outside the US would continue to see both “Gulf of Mexico” and “Gulf of America”, following its practice for locations with disputed names.
