{"id":660129,"date":"2026-08-28T00:31:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/660129\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T00:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:31:18","slug":"trump-signs-executive-order-to-rename-lake-ontario-as-lake-america-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/660129\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump signs executive order to rename Lake Ontario as \u2018Lake America\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> signed an executive order on Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario, making it \u201cLake America\u201d, amid his escalating trade war with Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The order directs federal agencies to adopt the name-change on US maps, documents and databases. But Trump has no authority to rename Canada\u2019s portion of the lake, nor to compel Canada, international legal bodies, international mapmakers, or the rest of the world to adopt a new name.<\/p>\n

The move follows a similar action the president took on the first day of his second term in office, when he signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the \u201cGulf of America\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a gulf and we have a lake \u2013 now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we\u2019ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and\/or the Pacific,\u201d he told reporters, sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll change them both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Propped behind him was a large map of the Great Lakes region, with \u201cLake America\u201d printed in red lettering above Lake Ontario.<\/p>\n

\"'Making‘Making the Great Lakes Even Greater’ signage during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photograph: Al Drago\/The Washington Post\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n

The latest tweak of Canada\u2019s nose by the US president comes as tensions fray between the US and its northern neighbour. Over the weekend, trade talks between Washington and Ottawa collapsed and the US imposed a 50 per cent tariff on several Canadian imports, with Trump threatening another round of 50 per cent duties on Canadian steel, trucks, cars and auto parts to take effect in the new year. <\/p>\n

Mark Carney<\/a>, Canada\u2019s prime minister, hit back with 25-50 per cent tariffs on hundreds of US goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to be treated like a state, but they\u2019re not a state,\u201d Trump said, a nod to his previous suggestions that Canada should become the \u201c51st state\u201d in the union, a prospect that has enraged Canadians. \u201cBut they want to be treated like they\u2019re a state, and so we just can\u2019t do that any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump complained about a $60 billion US trade deficit with Canada, which economists note is attributable almost entirely to US imports of oil; without that exchange, the US runs a sizeable trade surplus. Trump claimed that American farmers are being charged a 400 per cent tariff; about 97 per cent of US agricultural exports to Canada enter duty-free under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, though over-quota eggs, milk and dairy have Canadian tariffs of up to 300 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade. Sad,\u201d Trump said after signing the executive order updating the US department of interior\u2019s naming conventions.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the military: we defend Canada for nothing. We don\u2019t get anything. They don\u2019t pay us to defend Canada. But we defend Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Canada and the United States are Nato members and have treaty obligations of mutual defence under the North Atlantic Treaty, the Ogdensburg Agreement and numerous other treaties.<\/p>\n

Trump claimed the name change was something he had been considering for \u201ca long time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve notified all the various people we have to notify,\u201d he said after signing the order … This is official effective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

An administration official noted that the lake bordering Canada and the state of New York has most of its volume in the United States and that the deepest part of the lake is in United States territory. \u2013 The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,995,356,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,15847,5,7,8,384],"class_list":["post-660129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mark-carney","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117170319975723485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}