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Trump's 'Lake America' Renaming Draws Broad Opposition, Poll Shows
A Reuters-Ipsos poll finds Americans oppose President Trump's executive order to rename Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' by a 63% to 14% margin, with even Republicans opposing the move. The renaming, tied to an ongoing trade dispute with Canada, has also sparked a backlash against Google Maps and boosted MapQuest, which refused to change the name.
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Introduction
President Donald Trump's decision to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" has met with widespread public opposition, according to a new Reuters-Ipsos poll. The survey, conducted in recent days, found that Americans oppose the executive order by a margin of 63% to 14%, with the rest undecided. The move is part of a broader trade dispute with Canada that has also drawn significant public disapproval.
Poll Shows Overwhelming Opposition
The Reuters-Ipsos poll indicates that opposition to the renaming is more lopsided than when Trump moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" last year. At that time, polls showed more than 7 in 10 Americans opposed the change, but support was about twice as high as it is now for "Lake America."
The survey also found that strong opponents of the renaming outnumber strong supporters by about 7 to 1, with 52% strongly opposing and 7% strongly supporting. Even among Trump's fellow Republicans, opposition exceeds support, with 43% opposing and 33% supporting the change.
Trade Dispute Also Unpopular
The poll shows that Americans oppose Trump's new tariffs on Canada by a margin of nearly 3 to 1, with 57% opposing and 20% supporting them. Just 9% strongly support the tariffs, while 43% strongly oppose them. Republicans lean only modestly in favor, with 44% supporting and 44% opposing.
These findings are among the worst for Trump's tariffs to date. Reuters polling in December showed Americans opposed his tariffs overall by 53% to 23%, and when he initially announced tariffs on Canadian goods in early 2025, opposition stood at 59% to 36%. The new poll suggests that even nearly half of Republicans support a softer, more accommodating approach in the trade dispute.
MapQuest Gains Popularity After Refusing Name Change
The renaming has also had an unexpected effect on the navigation app market. Google Maps has changed the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America," in line with names given by the US Geographic Names Information System. Apple has not yet changed the name, but Trump has reportedly reached out to Apple directly to do so.
MapQuest, however, has refused to comply. In a defiant post, the company wrote: "We're not changing it." The company says it keeps "historical, familiar names for lakes and gulfs on its maps." The decision has boosted MapQuest's popularity, and it is now ranking as the number one free app in both the US and Canada.
Trump's Statements on Canada
Before the renaming, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Canada has been "Ripping Off" the A. for decades, accusing it of charging American farmers 400% tariffs and driving many S. companies out of business. He also claimed that Canada wouldn't certify Gulfstream jets for 10 years until he got involved, and that Canada wanted 100% of the market for Gulfstream's Canadian competitor.
Trump described Canada as "easily the most difficult and unreasonable" country he deals with, adding that Canada "feels entitled, but they are not a State, and will be entitled no longer." He has threatened to increase tariffs on Canadian trucks, cars, steel, and automotive parts beginning next January. In response, Canada has threatened "dollar-for-dollar" tariffs.
Political Implications
The poll's findings come as some Republicans have expressed concern that the Canada tariffs could hurt their efforts to hold the Senate, given that many competitive races are in states bordering Canada, including Alaska, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio. The trade clash could also affect Trump more broadly by reinforcing perceptions that he is focused on issues other than lowering prices, which have been stagnant along with the jobs market over the past 18 months.
Trump held an event at the White House to announce the "Lake America" renaming, a move that only 14% of Americans support, according to the poll. The decision to rename the lake stems from growing tensions over the trade dispute, even though Lake Ontario was named long before the Canadian province.
How each outlet told it
A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.
Framing: The headline emphasizes that Americans dislike both the renaming of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” and Trump’s trade war with Canada. — Critical and alarmed
Facts Included:
President Donald Trump has dropped another clunker in the laps of his fellow Republicans in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections.
His new trade war with Canada and his related move to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” are the latest in a series of unpopular actions.
A Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted in recent days is the first quality survey to test Trump’s renewed clash with Canada.
It shows Americans oppose the president’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America” 63% to 14%, with the rest undecided.
That more than 4-to-to-1 margin is more lopsided than when Trump moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” last year.
Back then, polls showed more than ̈7 in 10 Americans opposed it.
But support was about twice as high, on average.
The new survey also shows strong opponents (52%) outnumber strong supporters(7%) about 7-to-1.
And even Trump’s fellow Republicans oppose renaming Lake Ontario, 43%-33%.
Trump’s move to rename the lake stems from growing tensions over his trade dispute with Canada(even though Lake Ontario was named long before the Canadian province).).
And that trade dispute fares little better in public opinion.
The new poll shows Americans oppose Trump’s new tariffs on Canada nearly 3-to-1, ̈57%-20%.
Trump’s tariffs have long polled poorly, especially as inflation and the jobs market have proved stagnant over the past 18 months.
But this is among the worst findings to date.
Reuters polling in December showed Americans opposed Trump’s tariffs overall,53%-23%.
And when Trump initially announced tariffs on Canadian goods in early 2025, Americans opposed them 59%-36%.
Just 9% strongly support the new tariffs, while 43% strongly oppose them.
And Republicans lean only modestly in favor of them, 44%-33%.
Even nearly half of Republicans support the softer, accommodating approach.
And that’s the common thread running through just about all of these findings.
Almost nobody is asking for what Trump is selling, with strong support often in the single digits andlukewarm even in his own party.
But he’s decided to press forward.
Whether and how much it will matter in the upcoming election is to be determined.
Some Republicans have fretted that the Canada tariffs could disproportionately hurt their efforts to hold the Senate, given many of the most competitive races happen to be in states that border Canada: Alaska, Maine, Michigan and Ohio.
But the Canada clash could also hurt Trump more broadly — by reinforcing how he’s focused on things besides lowering prices, and might continue doing things that raise them(like the Iran war.).
Which might be why these tariffs and his renaming effort appear even more unpopular than previous similar efforts.
Just imagine before 2025 a president holding an event at theat White House—which Trump did for“Lake America”—for a move that 14% of Americans support.
It’s virtually unthinkable.
But in Trump’s second term, it’s par for the course.
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the distinct outlets we found asserting that specific claim — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimA Reuters-Ipsos poll found that Americans oppose President Trump's executive order to rename Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' by a margin of 63% to 14%.
ClaimThe same Reuters-Ipsos poll showed that strong opponents of renaming Lake Ontario outnumbered strong supporters by about 7 to 1, with 52% strongly opposing and 7% strongly supporting.
ClaimThe same Reuters-Ipsos poll showed that even among Trump's fellow Republicans, opposition to renaming Lake Ontario exceeded support, with 43% opposing and ̈33% supporting.
ClaimThe Reuters-Ipsos poll found that Americans oppose Trump's new tariffs on Canada by a margin of nearly 3-to-to-1, with 57% opposing and 20% supporting.
ClaimThe Reuters-Ipsos poll showed that Republicans lean only modestly in favor of Trump's new tariffs on Canada, with 44% supporting and 33% opposing.
ClaimThe Reuters-Ipsos poll showed that the margin of opposition to renaming Lake Ontario (63% to ̈14%) was more lopsided than when Trump moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America' last year.
ClaimPolls after Trump's move to rename the Gulf of Mexico showed more than 7 in 10 Americans opposed it, and support was about twice as high as support for renaming Lake Ontario.
ClaimSome Republicans have fretted that the Canada tariffs could disproportionately hurt their efforts to hold the Senate, given many of the most competitive races are in states that border Canada: Alaska, Maine, Michigan and Ohio.
ClaimThe Canada clash could hurt Trump more broadly by reinforcing how he's focused on things besides lowering prices, and might continue doing things that raise them.