Trump renames Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ amid Canada trade fight
Why it matters: The order applies to US federal use only, while Canada rejected the change as tariff tensions escalated.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday changing the US federal name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” tying the move to his worsening trade dispute with Canada. Trump said the change would take effect immediately and argued the lake’s deepest waters and most of its volume lie in US territory. But about 52% of the lake’s surface area is in Canada, and the order does not govern how Canada, international bodies or other organizations refer to it. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney mocked the move on social media, saying the waterway was called Lake Ontario before either country existed and would keep that name. The step came days after US-Canada talks failed to avert threatened 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods and matching Canadian retaliation.