The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed this Thursday an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" in the United States. The decision comes as part of an escalating dispute with Canada and was announced after Trump had threatened the change on social media on Tuesday. "The change to 'Lake America' is something I have been thinking about for a long time," the Republican President emphasized.
The measure is valid only for the United States, which means Trump cannot force Canada to adopt the same designation. Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and borders both the United States and Canada, being shared by both countries.
Trump also expressed broader ambitions, suggesting that the next step could be to rename the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean. "We have a gulf and a lake. Now what we need is an ocean," the President said, hinting at new territorial and symbolic disputes with Canada.
