U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order in the Oval Office to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” immediately.
“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.
“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.”
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.
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Lake Ontario is renamed to LAKE AMERICA! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ZFww8PexiW
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 27, 2026
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.
“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.”
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.”
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew responded to the news at a press conference, comparing Trump to an over-the-hill rock band and calling the name change “not his best work.”
Wab Kinew reacts to Donald Trump renaming Lake Ontario: “You know when a rock band is really over the hill and you see them in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago? I think that’s the part of Donald Trump’s presidency we’re at now.” pic.twitter.com/zizfAk7NUo
— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson_) August 27, 2026
And former Conservative MP Tony Clement weighed in on X with the question: “What should Canadians henceforth refer to Lake Michigan as?”
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.
Executive Order 14420 calls America “the greatest protector of the Great Lakes,” and states: “The body of water currently known as Lake Ontario is a tremendous asset to the United States and part of our Nation’s heritage. With the deepest parts of the Lake’s waters lying within United States territory, the United States claims most of the Lake’s volume.”
Trump 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.”
Asked about the proposed change earlier this week, Industry Minister Melanie Joly said: “We’ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period.”
Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly said that Canada would ‘always call it Lake Ontario,’ responding to President Trump’s suggestion that it be renamed ‘Lake America’ https://t.co/c3FGxbewMI pic.twitter.com/5Sl9NsPmAs
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 25, 2026
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.”
“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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