{"id":1031399,"date":"2026-08-29T17:46:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1031399\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T17:46:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:46:48","slug":"trumps-lake-ontario-rename-draws-critique-from-n-y-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1031399\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Lake Ontario rename draws critique from N.Y. leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he plans to rename Lake Ontario \u201cLake America,\u201d<\/a> drawing swift criticism from New York officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be changing the name effective immediately of Lake Ontario to Lake America,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

The move comes amid escalating trade tensions between the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

After trade talks broke down last week, Trump imposed $20 billion in tariffs on Canadian imports. Canadian officials responded with \u201cdollar for dollar\u201d retaliatory tariffs.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lake Ontario is bordered by the Canadian province of Ontario to the north, west and southwest, and by New York State to the south and east.<\/p>\n

As with Trump’s effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the \u201cGulf of America,\u201d<\/a> the name change would apply only to federal entities. Canada and New York, which borders the lake, are not required to recognize the new name.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul quickly rejected the proposed name, writing on social media<\/a> that \u201cNew York won\u2019t be calling it that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul also criticized the president in an interview with NY1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m speechless. It is so patently absurd,\u201d she said. \u201cShame on them for deflecting from the real needs that Americans are feeling that we have here in New York. The high cost of energy, prescription drugs, utility bills, groceries. And this is what the president spends his time on? Renaming a lake that was named after our Indigenous peoples. Shame on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the move \u201cjuvenile\u201d<\/a> and said Trump’s trade policies would hurt New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of lowering costs and cancelling his damaging tariffs, Trump is doubling down on a juvenile effort to rename one of the Great Lakes. He\u2019s escalating his reckless tariff war with our closest trading partner and ally, which will continue to drive up costs for Upstate New York families, seniors and small businesses. It\u2019s a pathetic attempt at distraction, and it\u2019s working families who are paying the price,\u201d Schumer said in a statement.<\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also criticized the announcement, arguing that the effort would cost taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump picked a fight with Canada that is costing you money. Instead of fixing it, he is spending your tax dollars to rename Lake Ontario. Republicans don\u2019t give a damn about making your life more affordable,\u201d Jeffries wrote on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The name Ontario comes from an Indigenous word meaning \u201clake of shining waters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lake Ontario is the smallest of the five Great Lakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he plans to rename Lake Ontario \u201cLake America,\u201d drawing swift criticism from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1031400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13565,23599,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,17545,5227,80,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":["post-1031399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-erica-brosnan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117180051309229895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}