US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he is renaming Lake Ontario — a large body of water shared by the United States and Canada — “Lake America”.

Trump signed an order in the White House in a move that comes amid a spiralling trade war between the world’s largest economy and its northern neighbour.

“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America,” the 80-year-old Republican told reporters in the Oval Office. “The Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They’re nasty people.”

The name change — which Canada is unlikely to accept — mirrors Trump’s changing of the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in January 2025.

“The lake change, Lake of America, was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, actually. As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico, we changed it, and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,” Trump said.

“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. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

In his inauguration speech last January, Trump said the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America.

A month later, Google changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” for those using its Maps platform inside the United States, complying with an executive order by Trump.

The tech giant wrote in a blog post that users outside the United States will continue to see both the original and new name for the Gulf of Mexico, as is the case for other disputed locations.