Democrats propose bill to reverse the naming of 'Lake America' after Trump's executive order

President Donald Trump’s move to rename Lad Ontario to Lake America has sparked action from the Democratic party, who are attempting to reverse the executive order.

If you’ve not been following the news, but have zoomed out of Google Maps in the United States, you’ll probably have seen that Lake Ontario is now labeled as ‘Lake America’. This comes after Trump signed an executive order on August 27, which instructs US federal agencies to adopt the new name – which is reflected on the Maps app.

However, it may also come as no shock that Canada hasn’t been particularly welcoming of the change, especially as it came as a response to the increasingly brutal trade wars between the two nations.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hit back at the decision to rename the lake on the US side of the border in a post on X.

Donald Trump renamed Lake Ontario on August 27 (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)

“The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,’” he wrote of its history.

“The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.”

Carney added: “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms... Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”

But it’s not just Canada that has an issue with the takedown of its name.

The US Democrats are proposing a new bill to push back against the renaming efforts.

Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Tim Kennedy (D-N.Y.) and Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), put forth their Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act on Monday (August 31).

The bill would prohibit the White House from renaming any of the five Great Lakes, effectively protecting them from further attempts to rebrand them.

This includes Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and, of course, Lake Ontario.

If put in place, it would nullify Trump’s order and restore its name on the US side of the border.

Debbie Dingell is heading the charge to stop the renaming (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Rep. Dingell, who is the co-chair of the House's Great Lakes Task Force said in a statement that Trump has been using natural resources as ‘a political pawn’ to ‘escalate an unnecessary trade war.’

"The Great Lakes are a shared treasure that generations of Americans and Canadians have worked together to protect. Canada is not our enemy. It is our neighbor, our ally, and one of Michigan’s most important economic partners. It is a friendship that no stroke of a pen should be able to erase,” she said. “By preventing President Trump from trying to divide us with distracting public relations stunts, maybe then he will turn his attention to his reckless trade war that is raising costs and threatening American workers.”

However, Trump has been vocal about his choice to retaliate against the neighboring nation.

Speaking in the Oval Office after signing the order, the president told reporters: “We defend Canada for nothing… They don’t pay us to defend Canada, but we defend Canada.

“They don’t pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they’re not a state. They want to be treated like they’re a state and we just can’t do that anymore.”