President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, the second waterway he’s changed the name of since retaking the White House.
Trump was joined by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller in the Oval Office for the signing.
“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” he said.
The order directs Burgum and the Interior Department to change the geographic names in the federal government’s system to Lake America.
On Trump’s first day back in office, Trump signed the “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness” executive order. It directed Burgum to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in the Geographic Names Information System.
The government database of names and location data will also now be updated to reflect the lake that is bordered by Ontario and New York.
Trade war between Canada and U.S. continues
This comes as Trump is engaged in a bitter battle with Canadian leadership over tariffs. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away over the weekend from negotiations after saying the U.S. was demanding too much and threatening Canadian sovereignty.
He went so far to say that the two countries were engaged in an economic war as two countries slapped tariffs on one another.
Trump argued that Canada, a longtime ally and supplier to the U.S., was “one of the worst countries in the world to deal with.”
Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford had some choice words for Trump, threatening to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the U.S. Ford called Trump a bully and a loser, saying he knows the president and the Republican Party will be hurting when voters head to the polls this November. If he could, Ford said, he’d be in the U.S. door knocking against the GOP.
The premier’s words caught the attention of the president, prompting the administration to begin posting online about renaming the lake that sits between the two countries.
Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes but is a key shipping route to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Trump administration said Thursday that most of the lake’s volume is on the United States’ side of the border and the deepest parts of the lake are in the U.S., so the name change reflects that it’s an American lake.
While Trump legally changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, the name change only applies within the United States. Some U.S. companies began changing the name online, including in Google Maps, but others, like The Associated Press Style Guide that’s used for news outlets around the world, did not.
Private companies, citizens and media organizations are not legally required to use the new name, but some have voluntarily chosen to do so.
Because the waterways are in international territory shared with other countries, the U.S. government has no legal authority to rename the bodies of water globally.
Still, the president remained confident that his administration was changing the name through the proper avenues.
“We filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else. We notified all of the various people that we have to notify,” he said. “So, we’ve done everything that you have to do, and this is official, effective immediately.”
Canada hasn’t responded yet
Neither Carney or Ford have commented yet on the signing of the executive order but Mélanie Joly, Canada’s minister of industry, rejected the idea several days ago, calling the name change “shenanigans.”
Trump was asked by a reporter in the Oval Office what his message was to Canada about the name change. The president said he didn’t have a message, but reiterated a point he’s made often lately that Canada has been “ripping us off for a long time on trade.”
While the spat between countries has worsened this week, it’s likely something that top administration officials are wanting to handle, particularly as Trump’s approval is underwater heading into the November midterm elections.
He responded to a question Thursday on if he was concerned about the trade war with Canada impacting U.S. affordability ahead of midterms, saying “it’s going to be very good for us.”
“When you talk about affordability, we’re losing 62 billion a year on average with Canada, and if you really look at it, we’re losing more than that,” Trump said. “It’s too much. It’s too much. We can’t lose that. We don’t want to lose that. We don’t want to lose it anymore.”