Trump's "Lake America" Order Draws Wide Backlash
Trump's "Lake America" Order Draws Wide Backlash
The News
President Donald Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario as "Lake America" is drawing backlash from critics, Democratic officials and some of his own supporters.
The order, reported on Sept. 3, 2026, targets the only Great Lake shared with Canada by name. It has since spread from Washington to New York's governor's office, cable news and letters pages across the Great Lakes region.
At least one House Republican has publicly dismissed the move as a joke.
Timeline
Reports land that Trump has ordered Lake Ontario renamed "Lake America." The Hill reports that Rep. Claudia Tenney, a House Republican, said she is "pretty sure" the name change is "a troll."
Cleveland.com publishes letters from readers objecting to the change, one noting that "Ontario" comes from an indigenous language meaning "Great Lake" or "Beautiful Lake," and another arguing the schoolroom mnemonic for the five Great Lakes changes from "HOMES" to "SHAME."
On a CNN segment, a current Trump supporter rebukes the renaming, echoing a New York mayor who said he saw no point in calling it Lake America, according to Raw Story.
Eric Trump posts a photo of himself in a "Lake America" hat. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office answers with a screenshot from a popular HBO show, The Independent reports.
Reactions
Tenney's line — that the whole thing is "a troll" — is the notable one, because it comes from inside the president's own party rather than the opposition.
Hochul's office skipped a written statement entirely, replying to Eric Trump's hat photo with an HBO screenshot, per The Independent.
Raw Story reported that a Trump supporter interviewed by CNN turned on the president over the stunt, and that a New York mayor also saw no reason for the change.
In Ohio, readers wrote to Cleveland.com that the renaming ignores the lake's indigenous roots and wrecks a geography lesson generations of American schoolchildren learned. The Boston Globe ran letters making the same "HOMES" to "SHAME" point.
NPR's news quiz noted that one app saw a surge in downloads after the "Lake America" change.
What's Next
The practical question is whether federal agencies and mapmakers act on the order, and how Canada — which shares the lake — responds. Neither has been settled in the reporting so far.
Expect the fight to keep running through New York state politics, where Hochul's office has already engaged, and through Congress, where Republicans are being asked whether they treat the order as policy or as a punchline.
More
Lake Ontario is the easternmost of the five Great Lakes and the only one in the group whose name is at issue here. Critics point out that the name predates both the United States and Canada, deriving from an indigenous word for "Great Lake" or "Beautiful Lake."
Poll
Should Lake Ontario be renamed "Lake America"?
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