Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America amid his rapidly escalating trade war with Canada. Trump's action, which he had previously threatened, directs the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to formalize

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The Latest: Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America amid his rapidly escalating trade war with Canada.

Trump's action, which he had previously threatened, directs the U.S. Board on Geographic Names

to formalize the change. As he signed the order, Trump compared it to his previous move to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

"If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean," Trump said. "So maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific."

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America after signing it at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 27, 2026.