Yesterday President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order titled Honoring the American History of the Great Lakes and Renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America. Section 2 says (paragraph breaks added by me):
“Sec. 2. Lake America. (a) The body of water currently known as Lake Ontario is a tremendous asset to the United States and part of our Nation’s heritage. With the deepest parts of the Lake’s waters lying within United States territory, the United States claims most of the Lake’s volume.
The Lake has long been an integral asset to American exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense. From the colonial period through the early republic, the Lake served as a critical artery for American trade, commerce, and military logistics, including the establishment in Oswego of a historic fort and the first United States port of call from the St. Lawrence Seaway, shipbuilding and naval operations during the War of 1812 at Sackets Harbor and other New York posts, and the movement of goods, settlers, and later industrial cargoes that linked the interior of the United States to eastern markets and the Atlantic.
Maritime commerce on the broader Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system — of which the Lake is the easternmost and gateway segment — continues to generate substantial economic activity for the United States, supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs and billions of dollars in annual economic output, cargo value, and related business revenue, with our ports, carriers, and States deriving a significant share of the system’s benefits in iron ore, limestone, coal, agricultural products, and other bulk commodities.
Water from the Lake is used to supply nuclear, natural gas, and oil-fired power plants and to supply municipal drinking water to nearby communities. United States domestic and cross-border shipping activity on the Great Lakes system has historically underpinned regional manufacturing, steel production, agriculture, and energy supply chains in several States, reflecting the strategic and economic importance of these waters to the United States that continues to this day. The Lake will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy.
In recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that the Lake officially be renamed as Lake America.”
There an article by Deepa Shivaram at npr on August 27, 2026 titled Trump directs federal government to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. Another article by Louis Casiano at Fox News on August 27, 2026 is titled Trump renames Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ amid intensifying US-Canada trade dispute. Still another article by Madison E. Goldberg at People on August 27, 2026 is titled New York Governor Slams Trump’s ‘Lake America’ Stunt, Noting Great Lakes Acronym Went From ‘HOMES’ to ‘SHAME.’
And there is a three-minute YouTube video at the New York Post on August 27, 2026 titled ‘It’s official’: Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario ‘Lake of America’[sic]. When he was asked what message are you sending, he bizarrely answered ‘no message.’ He should have just briefly quoted from Section 2 of his Executive Order.
There is a Wikipedia page titled List of lakes by area with the following information showing Lake Ontario is the smallest and least impressive (as also can be seen above in a satellite view):
Areas for the Great Lakes (in square miles)
Lake Superior 31,700
Lake Huron 23,000
Lake Michigan 22,300
Lake Erie 9,910
Lake Ontario 7,340
And there is another Wikipedia page titled List of Lakes by volume:
Volumes for the Great Lakes (in cubic miles)
Lake Superior 2,900
Lake Michigan 1,180
Lake Huron 840
Lake Ontario 391
Lake Erie 117
There is a third Wikipedia page titled List of Lakes by depth with a table of Lakes ranked by maximum depth (maximums above 1300 feet) that only shows Lake Superior as 1,332 feet and #39 in the world. Another table with Lakes ranked by mean depth only shows Lake Superior as 482 feet and #66 in the world.
When we look at web pages for the individual Great Lakes we can find the following:
Maximum Depths for the Great Lakes (in feet)
Lake Superior 1333
Lake Michigan 923
Lake Ontario 802
Lake Huron 750
Lake Erie 210
Average Depths for the Great Lakes (in feet)
Lake Superior 483
Lake Ontario 283
Lake Michigan 279
Lake Huron 195
Lake Erie 63
Lake Ontario doesn’t come in first based on Area, Volume, Maximum Depth, or Average Depth. Lake Superior comes first in all four of those rankings! It is what we rather should have chosen to call Lake America.
The only reason for choosing to rename Lake Ontario is to antagonize Canada by eliminating the lake with the same name as one of their provinces. (We already have Lake Michigan which has the same name as a U.S. state).
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