Overview
- President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. federal agencies to call Lake Ontario “Lake America,” which he announced Thursday in the Oval Office.
- The order directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to update federal maps and databases within 30 days while leaving international and local naming unchanged.
- Canadian leaders including Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario officials rejected the change, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul plus many U.S. lawmakers said their jurisdictions will not adopt the new name.
- Indigenous leaders, led by the Seneca Nation president, condemned the move as erasing Indigenous history and demanded reversal, and Rep. Debbie Dingell has announced legislation to nullify the federal rename for U.S. use.
- The action follows a 2025 federal-only renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America,” highlights the limits of unilateral naming for shared waters, and sits alongside ongoing tariffs and retaliatory measures that carry concrete economic effects.