President Donald Trump shared on Sunday that he was delighted with the decision of Google Maps to accept his renaming of Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America.’
Google Maps made the switch from Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America for US users following an executive renaming order from Trump last week, and the president posted a screen grab of the change on his Truth Social account on Sunday.
Trump announced the move on Thursday signing an executive order directing the Interior Department to adopt ‘Lake America’ as the body of water’s name for US federal purposes amid ongoing trade disputes with America’s northern neighbor.
The order does not compel Canada or any international organization to adopt the new name, and Canadian officials have spoken out against the move.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has clashed with Trump on a number of occasions, decried the move last week, rejecting the name change from Lake Ontario, pointing to the name’s indigenous roots from a Wendat word meaning ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is great.’
Google Maps made the switch from Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America for US users following an executive renaming order from Trump last week
Ontario premier Doug Ford erected a giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign on his side of America’s northern border in a show of protest over Trump’s move, posting up a message that read: ‘Lake Ontario. Now and Always’.
In a statement, Google noted that the move, ‘does not have any impact on Canadian naming conventions or how the rest of the world refers to the lake.’
‘Those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario’ on Google Maps, ‘and those outside … the US and Canada will see both names,’ the tech giant added.
The company took a similar approach to Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to be the ‘Gulf of America’ earlier in his second term.
Trump also celebrated the name change with a post of an AI video of himself dancing next to a ‘Lake America’ sign.
Lake Ontario forms part of the international boundary between New York State and the Canadian province of Ontario.
It has been jointly managed under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty for more than a century.
But when he signed the executive order on Thursday, Trump said he had contemplated the name change for a ‘long time.’
He then suggested he may not be finished tinkering with the map – joking that the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean could eventually find itself in his sights.
‘Actually, as you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico and we changed it, and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,’ Trump said last week.
‘So, if you think about it, we have a Gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific.’
The announcement came at a particularly explosive moment in US-Canadian relations.
One frame of an AI video posted by Trump on Truth Social celebrating the ‘Lake America’ renaming
Trade negotiations between the longtime allies have collapsed, with Trump threatening punishing new tariffs on Canadian goods and Carney promising Canada will retaliate ‘dollar for dollar.’
Trump has said tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, automotive parts and steel will rise to 50 percent by 2027 as he attempts to force more manufacturing into the United States.
And while signing Thursday’s order, the president made clear that his dispute with Ottawa was far bigger than the name of a lake.
‘The whole Canadian thing has to come to a stop,’ Trump said.
‘We are going to be doing tariffs on their cars that are coming in at a substantial level because we want to make the cars here.
‘They can make their own cars if they want and they can continue to make cars for Canada but we don’t want them to make cars for the United States of America. It’s very simple. Likewise many other products.’
Trump also accused Canada of relying on the United States for military protection without adequately compensating Washington.
Back in July, Trump verbally attacked Canada when wildfire smoke drifted across the border into a number of Northern US states, prompting severe air quality alerts and cancelations of of outdoor events.
‘We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air,’ Trump posted on Truth Social at the time.
