Trump's Order Renaming Lake Ontario 'Lake America' Draws Wave of Ridicule and Etymology Corrections
Key Takeaways
- •Trump ordered the Interior Department to use "Lake America" instead of Lake Ontario on federal maps and documents.
- •The directive came during strained U.S.-Canada relations after trade talks collapsed.
- •Commentators said Lake Ontario is not named after Ontario province but derives from Indigenous languages.
- •Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and several other critics publicly mocked the rename.
- •Sen. Bernie Sanders said Americans want economic relief rather than a lake renaming.
President Donald Trump's order to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America" unleashed a wave of ridicule Thursday — and prompted an immediate correction about the centuries-old name of one of North America's Great Lakes.
"We're into some real foolishness now," Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston wrote on social media. "It's Lake Ontario, buddy."
Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to adopt "Lake America" for use on federal maps and documents, declaring the move "official and effective immediately." The directive landed amid already strained U.S.-Canada relations, coming days after trade talks collapsed and after the White House circulated an AI-generated map bearing Trump's preferred name for the lake.
"Holy sh** — the purpose of this Trump event is to announce that he's changing the name of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America,'" journalist Aaron Rupar wrote. "It will be interesting to see which, if any, institutions and companies go along with this."
Critics were also quick to note an apparent flaw in Trump's name change. "Is someone going to tell Trump that the lake wasn't named after the province of Ontario?" Bulwark journalist Sam Stein asked his X followers.
Veteran congressional reporter Jamie Dupree offered a clarification in his own post: "Lake Ontario is not named for the Canadian province. It comes from a word used by the Iroquois and Huron tribes."
"Ontario" is commonly translated as "lake of shining water" or "great lake," according to The Associated Press.
"Now do you believe me when I tell you he is completely insane?" Canadian columnist Andrew Coyne wrote on social media.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), meanwhile, used the episode to argue Trump was ignoring Americans' economic concerns.
"No, President Trump. The American people don't want to rename Lake Ontario Lake America," Sanders wrote on X. "They want affordable healthcare, childcare, housing, education \u0026 nutrition assistance — all of which you have massively cut in order to pay for your $1 trillion tax break to the top 1%."
Republicans Against Trump summed it up more bluntly: "The laughing stock of the world."
We're into some real foolishness now. It's Lake Ontario, buddy.
