Trump the renamer-in-chief keen to leave his mark – or his stain – on world

Is it a key policy move which will “recognize the extraordinary contributions of the American people”? Or “real foolishness”?

Whatever the impact of Donald Trump unusual decision to retitle Lake Ontario as Lake America, days after Canada’s prime minister refused to be cowed by Trump’s punitive tariffs, it has certainly divided opinion – but perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Trump, after all, is a president who in his second term has proved himself to be the renamer-in-chief, with arguably his biggest successes coming in the area of rebranding buildings and entities, frequently after himself.

There was the United States Institute of Peace being renamed the Donald J Trump United States Institute of Peace last December. The introduction of so-called “Trump accounts” to encourage people to save money. The establishment of “TrumpRx” pharmaceutical sales. And, perhaps most hubristically, the plan to introduce “Trump-class” battleships – the largest battleships the US has created since the second world war.

Given the naming pattern, perhaps Americans can be thankful that Lake Ontario wasn’t renamed Lake Trump. The title Lake America, announced in an executive order on Thursday, strikes as a little unimaginative, a little on the nose.

That’s because the president has already done this: unilaterally and, some might say, unsuccessfully, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on the first day of his second term. (Eighteen months on, few serious media outlets use the term “Gulf of America”, with Trump’s order effectively only applying to the federal government, although that didn’t stop the White House from banning the Associated Press from the Oval Office in February 2025 when the news agency declined to use the term.)

Donald Trump points to a a map reading ‘Gulf of America’ after signing an executive order at the Oval Office on 25 February 2025. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

In his Lake America order, Trump didn’t mention the trade spat with Canada that prompted the renaming. Instead, the president claimed: “It is the policy of my Administration to recognize the extraordinary contributions of the American people and the rich heritage of our history by naming great natural landmarks for our shared achievements.”

Trump went on to claim that the US “claims most of the Lake’s volume”, because the deepest part of the lake lies within US territory. “This is official, effective immediately,” he said after signing the order, although, as the Associated Press noted, the order actually says the changes must be made within 30 days.

Whether that will convince people to use the new term remains to be seen, because Trump certainly can’t force other countries to use it, and even his order is limited in scope. It directs Doug Burgum, the secretary of the interior, to “update the Geographic Names Information System” – basically a sort of grand online map – to “remove all references to Lake Ontario” from government materials, but it’s unclear how the government will force businesses – and states – to follow up.

While we wait to see who adopts Lake America, Trump is embroiled in an ongoing battle in his attempt to rename the Kennedy Center, in Washington. Trump fired the center’s existing board last year and appointed a group of lackeys that voted to add his name to the center.

The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC this week – the subject of another Trump renaming battle. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts thus became the Donald J Trump and the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, but, after a judge ruled Trump’s name was added illegally, went back to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in May. (Trump’s board is now attempting to rename the center the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J Trump. Members also want to rename a plaza in front of the building after Trump.)

There are also rumblings that the Trump administration wants to rename New York City’s Penn Station after the president – a move unlikely to go down well in a city where Trump is deeply unpopular.

In the meantime, the response to the newly rebranded Lake America has been tepid.

“New York won’t be calling it that,” Kathy Hochul, the state’s governor, responded to a White House social media post announcing the change. Given Lake Ontario’s only US border is the state of New York, Hochul’s opposition could cause a problem, although it will surely be welcomed by New York-based cruise companies whose marketing materials use the term Lake Ontario.

Canadians are also unimpressed.

Asked about Trump’s move during a press conference on Thursday, Wab Kinew, the premier of Manitoba, was withering in his assessment.

“You know when a rock band is really over the hill and you see them in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago? I think that’s the part of Donald Trump’s presidency we’re at now,” Kinew said.

“He thought he had a real hit, a real golden oldie with the Gulf of Mexico, and he’s trying to bring back that, and he’s trying to play the hits for his base. But I think everybody here thinks it’s a little sad and it’s not his best work.”