WASHINGTON--U.S. President Donald Trump renamed Lake Ontario "Lake America" on Thursday, escalating a feud with Canada that has already spawned tariffs on tens of billions of dollars in cross-border trade.
Trump's executive order on Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes of North America, applies to U.S. federal usage about the lake, and does not govern what Canada, international bodies or other organizations call the lake. Within hours of Trump's statement, the prime minister of Canada and the Democratic governor of New York State said they would not be changing the name, which is more than 400 years old. New York borders the lake on the U.S. side.
"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."
Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed last week with each side blaming the other for derailing three days of intensive negotiations. Facing the lowest public approval of his term, Trump -- who campaigned on a pledge to avoid starting new foreign wars and fight inflation -- is struggling to resolve both the trade war his administration initiated with Ottawa as well as the war the U.S. and Israel began against Iran six months ago. Both have played a role in driving up the cost of living for Americans.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the lake's name predates both Canada and the U.S. as nations. "We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms," Carney said on social media. "Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always."
About 52% of the surface area of Lake Ontario is in Canada, with the remainder in New York. New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded on social media: "New York won't be calling it that."
Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont, which borders Canada and New York State, on Thursday called Trump's decision "petty and disappointing" on the social media platform X.
Grand Chief Pierre Picard of the Wendat Nation in Quebec issued a statement condemning the change in name, which originates from the Wendat language and means 'the lake is beautiful, great'. "President Trump is trying to erase our history," he said. "Outraged, appalled, shocked: there are no other words to express how I feel following President Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario 'Lake America.'"
Trump on Thursday also suggested he would consider trying to rename oceans. "We have a gulf and we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean, so maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both," Trump told reporters.
Since early 2025, Trump has repeatedly taunted Canada about becoming the 51st U.S. state, an idea Canadian leaders have dismissed as ridiculous.
