WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America," giving the Interior Department 30 days to enter the change into the federal repository of place names and hardening a diplomatic feud with Canada six days into a mutual tariff war.
The order carries no force outside the United States — no international body sets the names of shared waters — but it lands as U.S.-Canada relations sit at what officials on both sides call their lowest point in decades, with 50 percent duties on about $20 billion of Canadian goods in effect since Saturday and Ottawa's dollar-for-dollar retaliation set for Sept. 8.
Oval Office signing
Trump signed the document in the Oval Office and told reporters the move was not aimed at Canada but that its northern neighbor "has been ripping us off for a long time on trade," the BBC reported. The order directs the Department of the Interior to update the Geographic Names Information Service, the federal registry of domestic place names, within 30 days.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum embraced the assignment, writing that "the places and waters that border our nation and support our economy should reflect the greatness of the United States" and pledging that the U.S. Geological Survey would carry out the order.
Second renaming
The move mirrors Trump's 2025 order redesignating the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," which Mexico refused to recognize and which triggered a still-unresolved lawsuit by The Associated Press after the White House barred its reporters from presidential events over the wire service's refusal to adopt the new name. Google Maps now shows U.S. users "Gulf of America," Mexican users "Gulf of Mexico" and viewers elsewhere both names.
Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes, borders New York and the Canadian province of Ontario. Four of the five Great Lake names derive from Indigenous words.
Domestic pushback
Reaction inside the United States split along party lines. Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat whose state borders four of the five Great Lakes, called the order "idiotic" and said she would introduce a bill in Congress to nullify it. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose state is the only U.S. jurisdiction on the lake, said Albany would not use the new name.
Ottawa's answer
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said "things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario - today and forever," noting the name dates back more than 400 years and predates both the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Canadian Confederation. Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote: "It's Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever." A Canadian resident interviewed by Al Jazeera called the order "Typical Trump. It's sort of a silly joke."
Behind the pageantry, both sides hinted at a way back to the negotiating table. Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday that Washington had dropped earlier demands around French-language labeling, one of the sticking points in last week's collapsed talks; the U.S. denies making any such demand. Canada's retaliatory tariffs are still scheduled to take effect Sept. 8.