In a conservative New York community that shares its name with Lake Ontario, President Donald Trump’s decision to rebrand the Great Lake as “Lake America” has stirred frustration and disbelief among locals.
The rural town, located near the U.S. border, has found itself unexpectedly drawn into the president’s escalating trade fight with Canada after Trump ordered the lake’s name changed on Thursday, saying the move was part of an effort to make the “Great Lakes Even Greater.”
Google Maps has already reflected the new name, but the decision has landed unevenly with residents — including some who supported Trump at the ballot box.
For many of the roughly 10,000 people who live in Ontario, the change feels less like a patriotic gesture and more like an affront to a community identity rooted in more than a century of local history.
“I don’t think the lake’s name should be changed because it’s history,” Dave Rupp, a Trump 2024 voter who runs the town’s liquidation store, told the Washington Post.
“And I don’t like changing history,” Rupp added.
Cassandra Tylenda, another Trump voter, told the outlet she preferred the original name, saying she liked “Lake Ontario better,” though she felt powerless to change the outcome.
Serena Eaton, who lives near Ontario, offered a sharper assessment, accusing the president of using the renaming controversy to divert attention from the Epstein files and the war in Gaza.
President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated GIF of himself erecting a ‘Welcome to Lake America’ sign on the shores of Lake Ontario
President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute over trade
‘America doesn’t just own the lake,’ Eaton said. ‘I’m not going to call it Lake America. But my town is really redneck. I’m sure a lot of people will just switch their brains off and tune out sensible reason.’
Trump’s 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, rejecting the name change from Lake Ontario and pointing to the name’s Indigenous roots from a Wendat word meaning ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is great.’
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 a message that read: ‘Lake Ontario. Now and Always.’
On the hand, Serafino Rosso, a 41-year-old resident of Ontario, told the Post that she not only liked changing the lake’s name but also the name of the town.
‘I would like it if they changed the name here to the Town of America: The Town of America on the Lake of America,’ Rosso said. ‘It makes me feel really patriotic. It felt Canadian before.’
A map labeling Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ is displayed after Trump signed an executive order renaming the lake in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday
Carney pointed out that Lake Ontario has been known by its name since before the US gained independence
However, an overwhelming number of comments across social media were either opposed to the name change or claimed they would continue calling it Lake Ontario.
Google Maps made the switch from Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America.
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 as the ‘Gulf of America’ earlier in his second term.
Trump also celebrated the name change with a post featuring 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.’
