President Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” escalating a trade dispute with Canada that has already triggered billions of dollars in reciprocal tariffs on both sides of the border.
Trump signed the order Thursday in the Oval Office, directing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to update the federal Geographic Names Information System within 30 days. The move came hours after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, and days after trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa collapsed, triggering 50% U.S. tariffs on nearly $20 billion in Canadian exports.
The executive order laid out a blunt case for American stewardship of the Great Lakes. It stated that the U.S. Coast Guard supplies nine of the 11 ice-breaking vessels operating on the lakes, keeping commercial shipping lanes open free of charge. It noted the U.S. has invested nearly $4 billion in protecting the Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem over the last decade, and that Canada “has invested far less in similar initiatives over the same period.”