All the places the Trump administration has renamed in his second presidency, from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Ontario

President Donald Trump changed the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America" on Thursday. The Trump administration has changed the names of buildings, agencies, and bodies of water. Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska's Denali upon taking office in January 2025. Amid tensions with Canada, Trump renamed Lake Ontario to "Lake America" on Thursday. First, the Gulf of Mexico, now Lake Ontario — President Donald Trump has suggested an ocean could be next. The president signed an executive order on Thursday to rename Lake Ontario — one of the five Great Lakes, bordering both Canada and the US — to Lake America, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he had been thinking about the change "for a long time." "Maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific," Trump said about renaming other bodies of water for America. "Maybe we'll change them both." Canadian officials have said they would not recognize the lake's new name, which applies only to US federal use. The move comes as Trump's tariff-driven trade war with Canada continues to escalate. In August, the US imposed new 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods after negotiations fell apart, prompting Canada to announce retaliatory tariffs of up to 50%. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded on X, saying that Canadians would continue to call the lake Lake Ontario, a name that dates back over 400 years. Lake Ontario is the latest among the many name changes Trump has made or overseen during his second non-consecutive term. Besides renaming numerous government programs and buildings after Trump himself, here's a look at the other places the administration has renamed — so far. January 2025: Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico and Denali. A "Gulf of America" poster behind President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. On the first day back in the White House, Trump signed an executive order titled "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness." It directed two actions: rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," and restore Alaska's Denali, the highest mountain in North America, to its former federal name, Mount McKinley. President Barack Obama previously restored the mountain's Native Alaskan name, meaning "the high one" in the Koyukon language, in 2015. Trump's executive order acknowledged that "congressional action is required to establish a renaming in public law," but called for federal agencies to use the new names in the interim. Both Google and Apple have since updated their map features to reflect the name change. The Associated Press continued to refer to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico, leading the White House to bar AP from some press events. February to June 2025: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth restored the names of nine Army bases. Fort Bragg in North Carolina. US Army Photo by Pfc. Joshua Cowden / 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment In 2023, the Biden administration changed the names of Army bases named after Confederate leaders, renaming them after Medal of Honor recipients, military leaders, and other war heroes, including women and people of color. Hegseth reversed the changes in a series of orders in 2025, restoring the names of Fort Walker, Fort Benning, Fort Pickett, Fort Lee, Fort Gordon, Fort Hood, Fort Polk, Fort Rucker, and Fort Bragg. August 2026: Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America." Canadians were calling for boycotts of US products and travel before the latest executive order. Carney acknowledged in his X response to Lake Ontario's name change that the US "is changing." "Their trade relations, their foreign policy, their national monuments, their hydronyms," he wrote. "Canadian women and men also know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario — today and forever." Read the original article on Business Insider

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