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Pennsylvania lawmaker seeks to rename Lake Erie to 'Lake Pennsylvania' after Trump's Lake Ontario change
Confirmed
In Short: A Pennsylvania state representative is asking President Donald Trump to rename Lake Erie to 'Lake Pennsylvania' following the president's controversial renaming of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America'.
Maloney, who represents a district of about 65,000 people in southeastern Pennsylvania, is preparing a resolution that would ask Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to take steps to rename the lake. "This is Pennsylvania’s only Great Lake. Its modern economy and identity are increasingly tied to the boaters, anglers, families, and tourists who come to enjoy it," Maloney stated in a statement.
However, the proposal is likely to face opposition from Native American tribes, which have protested the renaming of Lake Ontario. "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," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement, rejecting the renaming.
Lake Erie, the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume and the shallowest, according to the EPA, has about 12 million people in its watershed, with 10.5 million people in the U.S. The lake is a crucial resource for the region, supporting a diverse ecosystem and providing recreational opportunities for millions of visitors each year.
Background
Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest average water residence time.
What's confirmed
- "This is Pennsylvania’s only Great Lake. Its modern economy and identity are increasingly tied to the boaters, anglers, families and tourists who come to enjoy it," Maloney said in a statement.
What's still developing
- Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., is pushing legislation to rename "Lake America" permanently, after President Donald Trump changed Lake Ontario's name amid a trade war with Canada.
- Pennsylvania state Rep. David Maloney, a Republican, is asking President Donald Trump to rename Lake Erie to "Lake Pennsylvania" following similar renaming efforts by the president.
- This comes after Trump signed an executive order last month to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America," a rebranding that Canada does not recognize and has firmly rejected.
- On his first day back in office in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," but, similar to the Lake Ontario rebranding, the order only applies to the U.S. federal government and does not bind Mexico, other international bodies or private entities.
- The president has also suggested renaming New Mexico to "New America," prompting several of the state’s Democratic lawmakers to call on Apple and Google to publicly commit to keeping the state's current name on their respective maps applications.
- Trump has also floated the idea of renaming the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
- Wyandotte and Mohawk tribal leaders have also protested the Lake Ontario change, with one leader calling it “disrespectful” and saying the Department of Interior failed to consult tribal nations on bodies of water named by indigenous people before either the U.S. or Canada were founded.
- Lake Erie was named by a Native American tribe that once lived along its shores.