Trump's attempt to rename Lake Ontario sparks sharp rebuke from Canadian prime minister

President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the Interior Department to update the Geographic Names Information System and rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The 80-year-old Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, mocked the proposal on X, pointing out that the lake’s name comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,” and has been in use for more than four centuries.

Carney stressed that the designation predates both Canada’s Confederation and the United States’ Declaration of Independence, and declared that Canadians will continue to call it Lake Ontario. He also used the occasion to criticize what he sees as America’s shifting policies and symbols since Trump’s return to the White House. The naming dispute adds to an already strained relationship, with recent tariffs on Canadian automobiles, liquor bans in some provinces, and a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion of Canadian goods.

Canada plans to respond with “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs next month. Trump previously attempted a similar renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, which Mexico rejected as beyond U.S. authority.