Following Trump's Executive Order, Google Renamed Lake Ontario For The U.S.
- 31.08.2026, 9:34
The U.S. president took this step amid a conflict with Canada.
Starting Friday, August 29, the Google Maps service began implementing U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order of August 27 to rename Lake Ontario—the smallest of the five Great Lakes, located on the country’s border with Canada—to “Lake America.” A corresponding press release was published on Google’s website, according to "Deutsche Welle".
Google explained the decision to rename the lake on its maps by noting that Trump’s executive order introduces changes to the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). “Since we update Google Maps in accordance with data from official government sources (for the U.S., that source is the GNIS), users of the service in the U.S. will see the name ‘Lake America,’ in Canada—it will still be ‘Lake Ontario,’ and users in other countries will see both names,” the company stated in a comment.
Google representatives emphasized that “these changes are consistent with our long-standing policy regarding bodies of water whose names vary from country to country.”
In February 2025, following a Trump executive order, Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico
The renaming of Lake Ontario is not the first instance of a geographic feature being renamed since Trump returned to power in January 2025. Less than a month after the inauguration of the 47th U.S. president, the service renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for users in the U.S. Outside the country, the new name is listed in parentheses after the traditional one.
The renaming on the service’s page occurred after the Gulf’s name was changed in the GNIS. At the same time, at Trump’s initiative, U.S. authorities restored the name McKinley to Denali in Alaska, a name that had been used from 1896 to 1975.
Trump renamed the lake after the collapse of a trade deal with Canada, Carney responded
The name of Lake Ontario was changed a few days after the U.S. and Canada failed to reach an agreement on a new trade deal. Due to the breakdown in negotiations, Washington imposed 50% tariffs on a number of goods from its neighbor. In response, Ottawa also announced tariffs of up to 50%.
Immediately after the U.S. administration renamed the lake, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that the previous name had existed for over 400 years: “It predates the formation of the Canadian Confederation and the adoption of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.” “We know that America is changing. Its trade ties, foreign policy, national monuments, and even place names are changing. But Canadians know this: calling things by their proper names means calling this lake Lake Ontario. That’s how it was, how it is, and how it will always be,” Carney wrote at the time on his page on social media platform X.
In addition, on August 29, the Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario Doug Ford erected a billboard on the Canadian shore of the renamed body of water bearing the inscription “Lake Ontario: Now and Forever” in English and French. “President Trump can call it whatever he wants, but I can tell you that the rest of the world will always call it Lake Ontario,” Ford noted.