President Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario amid trade war with Canada

President Donald Trump signed an order Thursday renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America amid ongoing trade tensions between the United States and Canada.

He had previously said he was considering renaming the Great Lake before Thursday's order.

The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, as we dont expect to do much business with Ontario any longer, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.

Ontario is Canadas most populous province, home to about 16.1 million people.

According to the Center for Great Lakes Literacy, the name Lake Ontario comes from the Iroquoian word oniatar:io, meaning lake of shining waters.

This is not the first time Trump has changed the name of a body of water. Shortly after taking office again in 2025, he renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Some companies, including Google and Apple, updated the name on their maps, though most entities outside the U.S. still refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico.