(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday renaming Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes by surface area, to Lake America.
With Canada as Illinois’ top international trade partner, the largely symbolic renaming is part of a wider economic story.
Trump explained his reasoning for the renaming Thursday.
“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America. We lose on average over the last 15 years $60 billion a year carrying Canada. So we just can’t do it anymore,” Trump said.
According to the Canadian government, Illinois exports roughly $17.5 billion in goods to Canada annually, and another $4.2 billion in services, such as financial, business and travel.
The U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods last week after trade negotiations between the two countries broke down.
“We’re going to be doing tariffs on their cars that are coming in at a substantial level because we want to make the cars here,” Trump said. “Likewise many other products. So the Lake change, Lake of America, was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.”
On Tuesday, Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced Canada would match the U.S. duties “dollar for dollar, rate for rate,” with counter-tariffs of 15%, 25% and 50% on U.S. goods taking effect Sept. 8.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a conservative, threatened Monday to cut the province’s electricity exports to the U.S.
As of 2025, the province primarily supplied electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
Both Minnesota and Michigan are primarily on the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, power grid which also covers most of Illinois aside from Chicagoland and surrounding counties.
On a more lighthearted side of the renaming, politicians poked fun at the renaming of the Great Lake, which isn’t named for the Canadian province, rather the province is named after the lake.
LAKE WISCONSIN NEXT 👀👀 https://t.co/3eXxYULom2
— Rep. Derrick Van Orden (@RepVanOrden) August 27, 2026
U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wi., said “LAKE WISCONSIN NEXT,” in a post on X.
Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan jokingly posted on X that Lake Michigan could be renamed to “Lake Florida,” so his opponent could “be just like daddy.”
When signing his executive order, Trump floated renaming more bodies of water.
“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,” Trump said.
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Trump Tower is renamed to NATALIE TOWER! https://t.co/5wTAHjJzrX pic.twitter.com/jeWMSC8f4E
— JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) August 27, 2026
Gov. J.B. Pritzker responded to the president’s order by declaring Chicago’s Trump Tower renamed to “Natalie Tower,” in reference to presidential aide Natalie Harp – who Democrats across the country have been critical of over her work for the president.
When the Gulf of Mexico was renamed to the Gulf of America, Pritzker released a video satirical declaring Lake Michigan would be renamed for Illinois and the state would annex Green Bay – a jab at Trump’s floating of purchasing Greenland.
Brett Rowland contributed to this story
