Dingell plans legislation to void Trump’s Lake Ontario renaming

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) plans to introduce a bill Monday that would nullify President Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.”

The one-page “Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act” bill would ensure the executive order “shall have no force or effect” and “restore the name of Lake Ontario,” according to documents obtained by Politico . Dingell confirmed the drafted legislation’s veracity in a Thursday evening post to social platform X.

The Great Lakes are a shared treasure that generations of Americans and Canadians have worked together to protect,” Dingell’s post reads. “That’s why I’m introducing legislation to keep Lake Ontario as Lake Ontario and block President Trump’s idiotic order.”

The Michigan Democrat was an almost immediate critic of Trump’s Thursday decision to formally change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America amid the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and Canada.

Dingell said in a press release Thursday, published before she announced her bill, the lawmaker affirmed that the body of water would “always be Lake Ontario.”

“Canada is not our enemy. It is our neighbor, our ally, and one of Michigan’s most important economic partners. It is a friendship that no stroke of a pen can erase,” Dingell said.

She added, “When President Trump is done doing arts and crafts in the Oval, I’d suggest he turn his attention to his failed economy that is raising costs, eliminating jobs, and leaving working men and women behind.”

The trade war will likely raise costs for American consumers once Canada’s retaliatory tariffs go into effect on Sept. 8. According to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s office, goods and services exchanged between the two countries totaled an estimated $872.3 billion in 2025.

The conflict began when Ottawa withdrew from negotiations with Washington, causing the Trump administration to impose 50 percent tariffs on a collection of Canadian goods. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to match these taxes starting Sept. 8.

After Trump first threatened to rename Lake Ontario Tuesday, Dingell floated instead naming the body of water “Lake Natalie” after longtime White House aide Natalie Harp — a jab based on growing speculation surrounding her work with the president. The Michigan lawmaker joked the move would push the president to “start protecting our Great Lakes.”