Trump said US is giving 'serious consideration' to changing Lake Ontario's name to Lake America

In August 2026, social media users circulated an apparent Truth Social post from U.S. President Donald Trump in which he floats the idea of renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. A screenshot of the purported post circulated on X and Threads. Here's what Trump allegedly said, in full: The United States is 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. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP Trump did, in fact, make the above Truth Social post on Aug. 25, which can be viewed on his account (archived). The White House also shared the screenshot on X (archived). As such, we have rated this claim as true. The president later shared a map of the area, with "Lake Ontario" crossed out and replaced with "Lake America." Trump's social media posts about renaming Lake Ontario came after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from negotiations over tariffs amid a contentious trade war between the United States and Canada. "When the Americans go to the negotiation table first with the right attitude towards our industries and a true partnership, of course we'll come to the negotiation table," Carney said. "But an attitude that Canada is a subsidiary of the United States … that's not something we're going to accept." Snopes previously confirmed that Trump said he wanted to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which he eventually followed through on via executive order. As with the Gulf of Mexico, Trump is allowed to change Lake Ontario's name for official U.S. government use, but he can't dictate what other governments call it. Lake Ontario is a shared international waterway, and Canada and the United States jointly manage it through multiple agreements. For more on the United States and Canada's relationship under Trump, we broke down the U.S. president's threats to annex the country's northern neighbor.