House Democrats are moving to blunt President Trump's order to rechristen Lake Ontario as "Lake America." New York Rep. Tim Kennedy, who co-chairs the Northern Border Caucus, says he is drafting legislation to counter Thursday's executive order, which directs the Interior Department to update federal maps and databases within 30 days, Axios reports. Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell, who oversees House Democrats' messaging, plans to introduce a separate measure to undo the order, calling it "absolutely insane" in a radio interview.
- Dingell plans to introduce the "Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act," which states that Trump's order will "have no force of effect," on Monday, the Hill reports. "The Great Lakes are a shared treasure that generations of Americans and Canadians have worked together to protect," she wrote on X. "That's why I'm introducing legislation to keep Lake Ontario as Lake Ontario and block President Trump's idiotic order."
New York Rep. Joe Morelle also blasted the move, calling it an "attempted distraction from the president's disastrous trade talks with Canada," CTV News reports. "While Rochester families deal with the impacts of a trade war he started, President Trump is playing games with a map," he wrote on X. The fight comes as US-Canada trade tensions spike, with 50% tariffs now hitting a range of Canadian products and Ottawa promising retaliation. A White House spokesperson, responding to criticism, asked of Kennedy: "Does the Congressman not love America?"
- Other critics included Sen. Bernie Sanders. "No, President Trump. The American people don't want to rename Lake Ontario Lake America," he wrote on X. "They want affordable healthcare, childcare, housing, education & nutrition assistance—all of which you have massively cut in order to pay for your $1 trillion tax break to the top 1%." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the move "sad and pathetic," adding: "Unable to solve a single problem facing Americans, this is what Trump resorts to."
- In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney noted that the lake's Indigenous name is older than Canada and the US. "We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms," he wrote on social media. "Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario—then, now and always."
- Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said the move was "a little sad" and not Trump's "best work." "You know, when a rock band is really over the hill and you see them in a casino playing some song from 50 years ago? I think that's the part of Donald Trump's presidency we're at now," Kinew said, per the Winnipeg Free Press. "He thought he had a real hit, a real golden oldie with the Gulf of Mexico, and he's trying to bring back that."
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