President Donald Trump recently renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
Who cares?
Honestly, most Americans probably don’t. Unless you live on its shores, I’d be shocked if you could even point to it on a map, given how ignorant most Americans are of geography.
But it’s Trump who issued the Aug. 27 executive order, so expect the left’s usual outrage – the same reaction we saw when Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” on day one of his second term. Or when he tried to put his name on the Kennedy Center. Or any of the other times he's stamped his likeness on something.
“If you think about it, we have a gulf, and we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean,” Trump said at the signing, clearly trolling the media and other detractors.
“So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific.”
I don’t think Trump is seriously plotting to rename an ocean (though it's Trump, so who knows).
So here’s my advice to everyone suddenly attached to the name Lake Ontario: Chill out.
Trump puts his stamp on things. That's literally what he's done all his life.
It shouldn’t shock anyone that Trump is thinking about his legacy. He’s 80, with a little over two years left in office. Time is short.
Some read this as Trump needling Canada over the ongoing trade war. I think it's something more.
From his first term, Trump has embraced “America first” as more than a slogan, and there is no clearer way to express this than by literally stamping our country’s name on a lake or gulf.
And there’s no question that Trump loves naming things after himself. His career was built on hotels and golf courses that bear his name. That means something to him.
So when he added his name to the Kennedy Center last year, it tracked with decades of Trump behavior. But amid all the outrage over the name, a bigger part of the story got lost: Trump has enthusiastically backed investing tens of millions into needed renovations for the cultural icon.
Progressives hate him enough that artists and donors have canceled performances and gifts – all over a name. Trump’s name is no longer on the front of the building, after a judge ordered it removed earlier this year. But the center's future still looks shaky.
That’s a shame, and it definitely isn’t all Trump’s fault.
And let’s be honest. Democrats are fine with change they sanction. Recall in 2020 when historical statues were ripped down at a fevered pace? And names change all the time, from street names to mountains to the Great Lakes. When former President Barack Obama renamed Alaska’s Mount McKinley to Denali in 2015, liberals seemed just fine with it.
When Trump does it, he’s a “toddler,” according to Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
Here's why you should have a beef with Trump's 'Lake America' change
There are valid reasons to have a beef with Trump’s name-change bonanza. First, most Americans elected him to fix the economy and end illegal immigration – not to redraw maps.
He’s delivered on immigration, but left too many people discontented over inflation and their financial future.
Obsessing over renaming a Great Lake could make these voters feel even more ignored. New polling shows a majority of Americans aren't thrilled with Trump's order. They didn’t much care for the Gulf of America change, either, with one poll showing that 70% opposed it.
Second, Trump has gone to town on executive orders – these name changes among them. He's easily eclipsing former President Joe Biden's record: 162 in four years, versus Trump's 277 in less than two.
This surge in executive power says as much about a lackadaisical Congress, content to cede control, as it does about Trump.
Unlike laws, though, executive orders are easy to overturn – as Trump himself proved on day one, retracting much of what Biden had done. Liberals can take comfort in that.
For everyone else wringing their hands over Lake America, take comfort in Shakespeare. “What’s in a name?” Juliet asks in "Romeo and Juliet." She loves her star-crossed beloved not for his name, but for who he is.
Whether it’s a lake or a concert center, names don’t fundamentally change what the thing actually is.
Not even when Trump's the one doing the renaming.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America. So what? | Opinion
