One of the Great Lakes has become the latest target in U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, highlighting his penchant for renaming bodies of water and landmarks.
The United States is “giving serious consideration” to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, Trump wrote Tuesday in a post on his platform Truth Social, a day after he and Ontario Premier Doug Ford traded personal insults over tariffs.
The president added that his country doesn’t expect to continue doing business with Ontario “much longer,” and in a separate post accused Prime Minster Mark Carney of lying about how trade negotiations unfolded.
After trade negotiations fell apart last week, the Trump administration slammed Canada with 50 per cent tariffs on an array of goods.
Ottawa unveiled its response to those duties Tuesday, which includes upping tariffs on American steel and aluminum products from 25 to 50 per cent, and tariffs up to 50 per cent on hundreds of other goods.
Here’s what preceded Trump’s “Lake America” musing and how his other renaming efforts have panned out.
WHY DOES TRUMP WANT TO RENAME LAKE ONTARIO?
The threat to rename the Great Lake that borders Ontario and New York came right after Ford and Trump targeted one another with insults.
The premier called Trump a bully and told him to “kiss my ass,” and the president retaliated by saying Ford is a less charismatic version of his late brother, the controversial former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
Trump repeatedly posted about Canada on Tuesday, repeating claims that the country was “ripping off” the United States.
He also posted an image of a map of Lake Ontario with its name crossed out and replaced with Lake America.
HOW DID LAKE ONTARIO GET ITS NAME?
The name is older than Canada itself.
Historians believe Lake Ontario’s name has Iroquoian roots meaning “beautiful lake” or “sparkling water,” according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
Europeans began calling the lake “Ontario” in 1641, the encyclopedia entry says, and by 1656 the name was appearing on maps.
The province of Ontario is named after the lake.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR NAMING CANADIAN LAKES?
The Geographical Names Board of Canada formed in 1897, and its members have approved more than 350,000 place names over the course of its existence.
People and organizations can propose new names for Canadian geography.
To put in a request, the naming board needs information including reasons for the suggested name change, the origin and meaning of the name, contact information for local residents who can verify how the space is used and photos or sketches.
Canada does not have to recognize name changes made by other countries.
Even if Trump succeeds in renaming Lake Ontario on the U.S. side, he can’t dictate what the rest of the world calls it.
WHAT OTHER PLACES HAS TRUMP RENAMED – OR TRIED TO?
One of Trump’s first moves after his inauguration in January 2025 was signing an executive order to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The Gulf of Mexico has carried its name for more than 400 years, and Trump’s order only holds water in the United States.
Trump also signed an executive order to change the name of North America’s tallest peak back to Mount McKinley.
Former president Barack Obama changed the official name to Denali in 2015, the preference of local residents and Indigenous Peoples.
But Trump said in his executive order that he wanted to “restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 25, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press
By Elissa Mendes | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
