Aug. 27 (UPI) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America” after his dispute with Canada over tariffs last week.
Trump threatened to rename the lake Tuesday on Truth Social, saying, “The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.”
“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” the president said just before signing the order.
In the Oval Office, a reporter asked what message he was trying to send with the renaming.
“No message,” he said. “As you know, Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very, very sadly. Even the military. You know, we defend Canada for nothing.”
Canada is a founding member of NATO.
The order says that within 30 days, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will update the Geographic Names Information System. The GNIS works with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to standardize geographic names for federal use.
Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Mount Denali to Mount McKinley on his first day in office in 2025. He can’t force other countries or private entities to use the new names, but he can force the federal government to.
Because it’s an international boundary water, Canada and the U.S. jointly manage Lake Ontario through the International Joint Commission under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.