U.S. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America after signing it at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 27, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," escalating his feud with Canada days after first floating the threat.
"We're going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America," Trump said before signing the order.
"We've notified all of the various people that we have to notify," he added. "So we've done everything that we have to do, and this is official and effective immediately."
The move caps a bruising stretch in which trade talks with Canada collapsed, and the White House circulated an AI-generated map rebranding the lake.