Trump orders Lake Ontario renamed “Lake America” amid Canada trade dispute
U.S. President Donald Trump said the name change would take effect immediately as trade talks with Canada remain stalled.
Washington, United States. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had ordered Lake Ontario renamed “Lake America”, escalating a dispute with Canada that has included tariffs on tens of billions of dollars in cross-border trade.
Trump said the change would take effect immediately.
Announcement in the Oval Office
“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“The lake change, the Lake of America, was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, actually,” he said.
Trade talks
Trade talks between the United States and Canada collapsed last week after three days of intensive negotiations, with both sides blaming the other for derailing the discussions.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lake border and federal naming process
Lake Ontario, one of North America’s five Great Lakes, borders the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. About 52% of its surface area is in Canada, with the remainder in New York under a 1909 treaty.
After Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed the Gulf of America in January 2025, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, part of the Department of the Interior, updated the federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System about two weeks later for immediate federal use.
Public opinion
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May found that 72% of Americans had a favourable view of Canada, a higher share than for any other country included in the survey, including Germany and Mexico, and about twice Trump’s approval rating.
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