Trump signs executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug. 27, 2026 in Washington, DC. Photo by Andrew Harnik /Getty Images

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order in the Oval Office to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” immediately.

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“That’s going to take place right now as I sign the order,” he said during a livestream from the White House on Thursday. He then signed the document before showing it to the cameras.

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“And we filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else,” he said. “We’ve notified all of the various people that we have to notify. So we’ve done everything that you have to do. And this is official effective immediately.”

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He has also ordered the Department of the Interior to update maps and databases to rename the body of water, according to the Washington Times and other news outlets.

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Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes, is located between New York State and Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, home to about 16 million people.

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“No message,” Trump said when asked what message he intended to send to Canada. He added that “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly,” and that “we defend Canada for nothing; they don’t pay us.”

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He repeated a comment he made on social media after trade talks broke down on the weekend, that Canada “want to be treated like a state, and they’re not a state … and we just can’t do that any more.”

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The move recalls Trump’s decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in January 2025. Most other countries still use the old name.

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He had been threatening the latest move for several days, writing on Truth Social on Tuesday: “The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, as we don’t expect to do much business with Ontario any longer.”

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According to the Center for Great Lakes Literacy, Lake Ontario’s name comes from the Iroquoian word “oniatarí:io,” and means “lake of shining waters.”

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“America” is thought to be derived from the name of Amerigo Vespucci, a 16th-century Italian explorer of the New World.

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