Trump Signs Order Renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, August 27, 2026, directing the U.S. government to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America," a move that immediately drew a sharp rebuke from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and escalated ongoing trade tensions between the two nations. The order, signed in the Oval Office, instructs the Secretary of the Interior to coordinate with the Board on Geographic Names to update the lake's name in U.S. geographic records within 30 days. The body of water, one of the Great Lakes shared by the United States and Canada, is bounded by New York State to the south and east and the Canadian province of Ontario to the north, west, and southwest.