Lake America?

 

Question: Trump changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America. Does that apply only to the territorial waters of the US? If so wouldn’t it be incorrect for the new names to be affixed to the entire body of the waters? Gulf of America? Lake America? Apparently a president can unilaterally order the federal government to rename a place, and the government must comply — though the rest of us are free to ignore him. Trump’s executive order to change Lake Ontario to Lake America directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to update the Geographic Names Information System, the federal database that standardizes place names across agencies, within 30 days. Burgum, who clearly likes his job, rushed to comply, posting: “We’re on it, Mr. President! The places and waters that border our nation and support our economy should reflect the greatness of the United States. USGS maps our country for the world to see, and we are PROUD to implement your Executive Order to rename LAKE AMERICA.”

The reaction has been predictable. Congressional republicans said nothing, and democrats offered only their usual toothless complaints. House democrats posted “It’s too expensive to live and Donald Trump is renaming lakes.”. Chuck Schumer, working from the same playbook, said Trump should focus on lowering costs and reversing tariffs instead of renaming one of the Great Lakes. Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-N.Y.), who co-chairs the bipartisan Northern Border Caucus, said he’s “working on a bill” in response. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) plans to introduce one too, calling the order “absolutely insane” and saying she “deeply resents it.” But democrats know this is symbolic and a waste of time since republicans control both houses of Congress.

The White House and right-wing media responded predictably. One of the administration’s many spokespeople, Taylor Rogers, asked of Kennedy: “Does the congressman not love America?” That was the standard line on the right, echoed in comments like “so freaking awesome!”, “Same great lake, new AMERICAN name!”, and “I don’t care if it’s petty — in 50 years nobody will call it anything but Lake America, just like the Gulf of America.” One devotee gloated “It’s happening, and there’s nothing Canada can do about it.”

Yes they can. They can ignore the president – which is 100 percent guaranteed knowing that virtually no other country will recognize the name change. But I would just change (a la the maps depicted) just change the name within the territorial boundaries of the United States which would likely infuriate Trump even more (if that is possible).

Trump seems to forget that “Ontario” is also the name of twelve American cities, like Ontario, California. Is he going to demand they change their names too? He has probably doesn’t know – and doesn’t care – that the name isn’t Canadian and predates Canada by more than 400 years. The name comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.” Fittingly, the leader of the Seneca Nation in upstate New York chides the president saying the renaming violates a treaty more than 225 years old and shows “blatant disrespect” for the Indigenous people who named the lake in the first place. Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca called for the order to be rescinded, arguing the Lake Ontario name should stand as a reflection of the Indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Canada who lived around the lake long before either nation existed. “The President cannot assert ownership over our culture or erase it through irresponsible political action.”

Oh yes he can.

I suspect that, as with the Gulf of Mexico rename, most people will just keep using the traditional name. Seventy-two percent of Americans favor keeping it, including 45 percent of Republicans. A CNN poll found Americans say by a 2-to-1 margin that Trump has “gone too far” with these kinds of changes, and a Pew Research Center poll found just 9 percent think it’s appropriate to name things after him while he’s still president. Yet he persists — including, as I’ve reported elsewhere, floating the idea of replacing Doris Miller’s name with his own on a new Ford-class aircraft carrier. The Lake Ontario rename will likely meet the same disfavor, especially since Americans generally view Canada favorably. 

Trump himself joked: “We have a gulf. We have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean. So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

I assume he was joking. But expect only the MAGA-verse to actually use these new names while the rest of the country, and the world, will simply ignore him. Just as Biden signed executive orders overturning Trump’s on his first day in office, I’d bet a dollar the next democratic president does the same.