One lake wasn’t enough for him.
On Thursday, August 27, 2026, Donald Trump sat down in the Oval Office, grabbed a Sharpie, and crossed out the name Lake Ontario by hand. Above it, he wrote “Lake America”. It was a real executive order, valid for federal use in the United States, although Canada—which shares that same lake with New York—doesn’t have to call it the same thing.
And there, in front of the cameras, Trump delivered the phrase that sums up the moment: “now all we need is an ocean”. He spoke of renaming the Atlantic, the Pacific, or perhaps both. Several media outlets, such as Fox News, clarified that it sounded more like an off-the-cuff idea than a formal plan, with no order signed to that effect. But the precedent already exists: on his first day in office, he had renamed the Gulf of Mexico “Gulf of America”.
All this amid real trade tensions with Canada, a country he accused of “taking advantage” of the United States for years. Meanwhile, the world map waits to see how much more can have its name changed.