President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is giving “serious consideration” to renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as his trade war with Canada intensifies. Trump announced the proposal in a social media post, citing the ongoing tariff dispute between the two countries.
The renaming suggestion follows Trump’s pattern of geographic rebranding. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order that renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and changed Mount Denali in Alaska back to Mount McKinley, according to the White House. Trump’s stated rationale for these changes is to restore names that “honor American greatness.”
The Lake Ontario proposal comes as trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada collapsed. Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on approximately $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, including cars, trucks, steel, and aluminum, according to the Trump administration’s 50% tariff on Canadian cars and trucks. Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs on American goods, deepening the trade dispute.
However, Lake Ontario differs from the Gulf of Mexico and Mount McKinley in one critical way: it is a shared resource jointly managed by the United States and Canada. The two countries manage the lake through the International Joint Commission and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which was first signed in 1972. Approximately 9 million people—roughly 3 million Americans and over 6 million Canadians—rely on Lake Ontario for drinking water, according to Cornell University expert Christine Leuenberger.
Leuenberger, a senior lecturer in science and technology studies at Cornell who studies the social impact of borders and naming practices, warned that unilateral renaming would be harmful. “The proposal to unilaterally rename Lake Ontario is detrimental to water diplomacy that is crucial for effective cooperation over vital natural resources,” Leuenberger said. She added that naming and renaming bodies of water have “historically been a precondition for attempts to transfer the management and control of them.”
Leuenberger noted that while Trump could issue an executive order to rename the lake, such an order would only affect U.S. cartographic naming practices. It would not change how Canada, international organizations like the International Hydrographic Organization, or local entities refer to the lake. “International cooperation over maintaining such resources is important,” Leuenberger said, warning that unilateral renaming “threatens the up-to-now effective environmental cross-border partnerships managing natural resources between the U.S. and its neighbors.”
The proposal has drawn criticism from other quarters as well. U.S. Representative Max Miller released a statement calling Trump’s Lake Ontario idea “pathetic,” while local officials from New York and Ontario expressed concern about the move. The renaming would require action from the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, the federal agency responsible for official geographic naming decisions.
Sources
- Associated Press — Trump’s announcement of the Lake Ontario renaming proposal via social media post on August 25
- Washington Post — Trump’s statement that the U.S. is considering renaming Lake Ontario amid the Canada trade war
- Reuters — Trump’s threat to rename Lake Ontario and reference to his January 2025 executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico
- Cornell University — Expert commentary from Christine Leuenberger on water diplomacy, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the 9 million people relying on Lake Ontario for drinking water
- White House — Executive Order 14172 from January 20, 2025, detailing the renaming of Mount Denali and the Gulf of Mexico
- ABC News — Reporting that Lake Ontario is jointly managed by the U.S. and Canada through the International Joint Commission and Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
