President Donald Trump took his fight with Canada to the water in late August.
With the stroke of a pen in the Oval Office, Trump ordered the U.S. government to stop using the name Lake Ontario has borne for centuries and to begin calling it “Lake America,” turning one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes into the latest canvas for his aggressive America-first branding campaign.
“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” Trump said before signing the executive order.
The declaration came as the trade war between the two countries intensified. The United States imposed 50% tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Canadian goods in late August. Canada is preparing its own dollar-for-dollar response on Sept. 8, with tariffs ranging from 15% to 50% on American steel, dairy products, appliances, agricultural equipment, paper, plastics and electronics.
And now they are fighting over the name of a lake.
A large map stood behind Trump during the signing, with “LAKE AMERICA” printed in red across the water. Another read, “MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN GREATER.”
“Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade,” Trump said, adding that the United States defends its northern neighbor militarily “for nothing.”
The president has spent much of his second term antagonizing the longtime U.S. ally, repeatedly suggesting that Canada become the 51st state and accusing Canadian leaders of taking advantage of the United States.
Lake Ontario is an extraordinary new battleground.
Its international boundary runs through the water, with New York along its southern and eastern shores and the Canadian province of Ontario to the north and west. More than half of the lake’s surface area lies on the Canadian side of the border.
Trump’s order cannot make Canadians call it Lake America. It directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to update federal maps, documents and databases. The White House order calls for references to “Lake Ontario” to be removed from the federal Geographic Names Information System.
Trump suggested that Lake America may not satisfy his appetite for geographic revision.
“If you think about it, we have a gulf, and we have a lake,” he told reporters. “Now, all we need is an ocean.”
He floated the Atlantic and Pacific as possibilities.
“Maybe we’ll change them both,” Trump said.
A Presidency With Its Name on It
The lake is part of a much larger effort during Trump’s second presidency to attach his name, image, or signature to the machinery and symbols of the federal government.
His administration and allies have put the Trump brand on buildings and in government programs and initiatives, while his likeness and signature have appeared on federal materials. The Kennedy Center and the U.S. Institute of Peace have been among the institutions caught up in the renaming push, and Trump-branded initiatives have included TrumpRx, Trump Accounts, and the “Gold Card” immigration program.
The phenomenon has become striking enough that political scientists have examined it as something beyond the customary presidential appetite for legacy.
“There are lots of narcissists in politics,” Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky told reporters earlier this year.
What separates Trump, Levitsky argued, is the absence of people around him willing or able to tell him no.
“Trump is unconstrained by his cabinet, by his advisers, by his party,” Levitsky said.
The water campaign began immediately after Trump’s return to office.
On his first day back in the White House in January 2025, he ordered the federal government to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Other countries were under no obligation to adopt the change, and some news organizations continued using the Gulf of Mexico or used both names.
Thursday’s executive order explicitly links Lake America to that earlier action, declaring it administration policy to name major natural landmarks in recognition of American achievements. The order credits the United States with providing security and investment that help keep the Great Lakes accessible for shipping and recreation.
Despite Trump’s announcement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pushed back.
“The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.’ The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,” Carney wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”
Tariffs, Retaliation and a Lake
The timing made the latest name change difficult to separate from the economic confrontation on both sides of the border.
Trade negotiations collapsed last week. The United States then imposed 50% tariffs on $27.6 billion of Canadian products, according to the Canadian government. Ottawa responded with matching countermeasures on $27.6 billion of U.S. imports, effective Sept. 8.
Trump has also threatened to raise tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, and automotive parts to 50% starting Jan. 1.
The dispute has pushed relations between the neighboring countries into territory almost unimaginable, given decades in which Washington and Ottawa boasted of one of the world’s closest economic and diplomatic relationships.
“We have a gulf, and we have a lake,” Trump said. “Now, all we need is an ocean.”
