Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) announced Thursday that he will introduce legislation to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename the body of water.
Patronis’s bill, which he posted to social media, would require any reference to the Great Lake in law, regulation, document, paper, or record of the United States to refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America.
“The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America was met with an awesome response in Northwest, FL – (the shirts are awesome!),” Patronis wrote on X. “Let it rip, Mr. President!”
Trump’s executive order comes as the U.S.’s relationship with Canada deteriorates amid a trade war. Canada this week announced retaliatory tariffs after a breakdown in trade talks and Trump imposing 50% duties on Canada over the weekend.
“Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade,” Trump said on Thursday from the White House. “Very sadly, even the military. You know, we defend Canada for nothing. We don’t get anything. They don’t pay us to defend Canada, but we defend Canada, and they understand that.”
Trump first floated changing the name of the body of water earlier this week, writing in a Truth Social post on Aug. 25 that he was “giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.”
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The executive order is the second time Trump has unilaterally moved to change the name of an international body of water, having signed an order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
“If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “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.”