Trump's week in review: Lake Ontario renamed; IndyCar race on the National Mall

5. Trump signs an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America

More than a year after signing an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, Trump signed another executive order Thursday renaming one of the Great Lakes. The order renames Lake Ontario, which separates the U.S. state of New York from the Canadian province of Ontario, as Lake America. 

The executive order directs the Secretary of the Interior to ensure that the Board on Geographic Names updates the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to “reflect the renaming of the lake and remove all references to Lake Ontario from the GNIS” within 30 days. The order also lays out Trump’s rationale for the change.

“The United States is the greatest protector of the Great Lakes, including the body of water currently known as Lake Ontario,” he wrote. 

“Without the security and investment provided by the United States, this freshwater system would not be open for shipping, recreation, and responsible use to the same extent as it is today,” he added. “The United States Coast Guard supplies 9 of the 11 ice breaking vessels on the Great Lakes, securing commercial shipping lanes free of charge. The United States has invested nearly $4 billion in protecting the Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem in the last decade, while Canada has invested far less in similar initiatives over the same time period.”

As with Trump’s Gulf of America executive order, it remains to be seen how widely the name Lake America will be used. Following the Gulf of America order, Google Maps and Apple Maps began referring to the Gulf of Mexico by its new name, while The Associated Press declined to do the same.