On August 25, Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that the United States was “seriously” considering renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” in the midst of a trade war with Canada and after his provocations and numerous statements aimed at turning the country into the “51st state.”
– Today, Thursday the 27th, an official White House account posted a video that went viral on TikTok.
– The video shows the president, seated at his desk in the White House, crossing out the name “Lake Ontario” on a map and writing “Lake America” in its place with a marker.
The name “Ontario” originates from the Iroquoian language, and it existed before the formation of Canada and the United States.
– Derived from the Iroquoian word Ontarí:io, which means “beautiful lake” or “lake with sparkling waters,” it has appeared on European maps since the 17th century.
– The former governor of New France, Champlain, called it “Lac Saint-Louis” in 1632, while late 17th‑century French cartography referred to it as “Lac Frontenac,” in honor of a territorial governor.
This is not the first time the American president has targeted Indigenous toponymy; Donald Trump previously renamed Denali back to its Canadian-era name by decree, but this time he is focusing on the Ontario name to attack the province’s premier, Doug Ford, who had released a campaign advertisement against tariffs in October 2025 using Ronald Reagan’s voice.
– Federal toponymy falls under the purview of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which is compelled to conform by decree.
– In the case of a lake lying on territory shared by the United States and Canada, the 1987 agreement on the coordination of place names gives preference to “official established names.”
– The Canadian government has already responded: “We will always call it Lake Ontario.”
This is not the first time Donald Trump has unilaterally renamed a geographic entity.
– The most recent example is the January 20, 2025 decree in which he renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
– This decision is legally binding only for American federal agencies, but it has been adopted by several digital maps, including the most influential among them, Google Maps.
– The Associated Press was barred from access to the Oval Office for continuing to refer to the body of water as the “Gulf of Mexico” in its guidelines.
Unilateral changes to toponymy, especially for lakes, are rare and are often tied to dictatorships dating from the era of independence. Such changes rarely outlive the disgrace or death of their initiator.
– In 1973, the Ugandan “president for life,” Idi Amin Dada, renamed Lake Edward as “Lake Idi Amin Dada,” while the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mobutu Sese Seko, renamed Lake Albert as “Lake Mobutu Sese Seko.”
– In the 1930s, the Iranian Pahlavi dynasty renamed Lake Urmia as “Lac Razaya” (Reza’s Lake) in honor of Reza Shah, but that name was abolished before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.