Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' in the United States

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he is renaming Lake Ontario to be known as “Lake America” in the United States as he escalates his trade war with Canada.

The Republican president signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the lake's name in the U.S. geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow his preferred naming convention, however.

Trump has been floating the idea of the name change in recent days as the U.S. announced it was imposing 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down. Trump has been needling America’s northern neighbor since he returned to the White House last year, suggesting the ally with whom the U.S. once had warm relations should instead be absorbed as the 51st state.

Canada responded to Trump’s import taxes this week by imposing retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment.

Trump, who signed the order as he was sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, had a large sign behind him propped on a stand with a map of the Great Lakes. Over Lake Ontario, in big red letters, the map read “Lake America.”

On the other side of the president was another map with the words, “MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN GREATER.”

The lake is one of multiple Great Lakes that the U.S. and Canada share borders along.

The office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did not immediately respond to a request for comment

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston dismissed Trump’s move in a social media post, writing: “We’re into some real foolishness now. It’s Lake Ontario, buddy.”

There is no single international body that determines names of international bodies of water and Trump has wide latitude over how the U.S. government recognizes geographic places and landmarks.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has traded insults with Trump, this week brushed aside the prospect of Trump changing the lake's name as “a lot of rhetoric.”

The name Lake Ontario comes from the Huron Indigenous people’s word “oniatarí:io,” which means “lake of shining waters.” The province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.

Trump said that while his action was not meant to send any particular geopolitical message, “Canada’s been ripping us off for a long time” on trade and military issues.

“They wanted to be treated like a state and they’re not a state,” the president said. “We just can’t do that anymore.”

“We love the people of Canada,” Trump added. “I don’t think their representatives do, an appropriate job. Maybe they’ll change. I really don’t know. It doesn’t make much difference.”

The move is reminiscent of his move last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

Trump scribbled his name with a Sharpie pen on the executive order, then held it up for the cameras, offering, “And we filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else.”

“We’ve notified all of the various people that we have to notify. So, we’ve done everything that you have to do,” he said. “And this is official, effective immediately.”

The executive order Trump signed shows that the changes are, in fact, are supposed to be made within 30 days.

He also suggested his push to rename bodies of water may not be finished.

“So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” Trump said. “So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them.”

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

City Councillor Renaldo Agostino looks at the Detroit skyline across the Detroit River Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, in Windsor, Ontario (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

People look out across Lake Ontario from the harbor in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Keito Newman/The Canadian Press via AP)

President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

MIAMI (AP) — Social media influencer Tristan Tate said Thursday that he and his brother Andrew are suffering from a poor diet and lack of privacy and can't adequately defend themselves from criminal charges if they have to remain in a Miami jail while fighting extradition to the United Kingdom.

Lawyers for the Tates are asking a judge to allow them to be freed from custody at least until an extradition hearing can be held on their U.K. rape and trafficking charges. They have remained in a federal detention center in Miami since they were arrested July 18.

Prosecutors said they appear to have money and have bragged about multiple passports. Their attorneys argued that their high profile and active social media presence make it nearly impossible for them to flee and they have shown they won't run through cooperating in a separate sex crime case in Romania.

The Tates have become among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities by promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire.

Andrew Tate, 39, has said women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for the attacks and shared graphic descriptions of how he might attack women. Tristan Tate, 38, has worked with his brother on multiple businesses, including the production of online webcam pornography.

No date for an extradition hearing has been set. The U.K. has until mid-September to provide evidence to the State Department.

On his way into court Thursday, defense attorney Joseph McBride told reporters he hasn’t heard of a case where U.S. Magistrate Lauren Louis has allowed someone out on bail while awaiting an extradition hearing.

But while the odds aren’t in their favor, McBride felt like the truth was. He called them innocent, good men who have never run from the law.

In court, Tristan Tate was called to the stand Thursday and said he can't prove he is innocent if he is kept in jail.

“I need to clear my name. I need to take part in these proceedings, I can’t do that from the secure housing unit," he said.

Tristan Tate also complained of conditions at the Miami jail. He said there are ants and the only toilet in his cell is where anyone walking by can see him. He said he has lost 14 pounds (6.4 kilograms) eating mostly junk food in the nearly six weeks he has been in custody.

The brothers were wearing tan prison clothes and shackled for Thursday’s hearing.

Their lawyers said the U.K.’s request was out of line because their criminal case in Romania is going first. Romanian officials have let them remain free until the proceedings conclude and they have not tried to flee and are complying with all court restrictions.

The judge reminded defense attorneys she has to follow U.S. laws.

Attorneys for the Tates said they largely exaggerated their claims of wealth to boost their social media personas, their claims of multiple passports were satirical and a “$50-million-dollar superyacht” featured in one of the brothers' videos does not actually belong to them. The expensive luxury cars, including a $2.1 million Aston Martin, that were featured in other videos were rented, the defense says.

The brothers have long claimed that their violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes.

“That is not the real Andrew Tate, the person Andrew Tate," said his lawyer Howard Srebnick, who in court Thursday compared Tate on social media to Sacha Baron Cohen's confrontational Ali G character.

The former professional kickboxers, who have dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, have millions of social media followers and are vocal supporters of President Donald Trump. The White House has said the brothers shouldn’t expect any help from the president.

Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Attorney Joseph McBride, right, who represents Andrew and Tristan Tate as they fight extradition to the United Kingdom on charges of rape and sex trafficking, speaks to news media before a bond hearing at the C. Clyde Atkins U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Azeneth Gregoira, a supporter of Andrew and Tristan Tate, holds a sign supporting the brothers outside the C. Clyde Atkins U.S. Courthouse before a bond hearing as the Tates fight extradition to the United Kingdom on rape and sex trafficking charges, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Attorneys Joseph McBride, center, and Andrew Ford, right, who represent Andrew and Tristan Tate as they fight extradition to the United Kingdom on charges of rape and sex trafficking, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, arrive for a bond hearing at the C. Clyde Atkins U.S. Courthouse, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Attorney Joseph McBride, right, who represents Andrew and Tristan Tate as they fight extradition to the United Kingdom on charges of rape and sex trafficking, speaks to the news media before a bond hearing at the C. Clyde Atkins U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)