Ohio city council decides to rename Lake Erie to ‘Gulf of Cleveland’

The Cleveland, Ohio, City Council on Monday voted to rename a portion of Lake Erie as the “Gulf of Cleveland,” taking a jab at President Trump’s executive order declaring that Lake Ontario be called the “Gulf of America.”

The emergency resolution led by Councilmember Kris Harsh passed in a 13-1 vote and was intended to take effect immediately. The resolution is not legally binding.

Harsh’s speech to attendees ahead of the vote referred to Trump’s order to rename Lake Ontario, as well as ordering the Gulf of Mexico be called “ the Gulf of America ” last year, and his recent suggestion of calling New Mexico “ New America ” after a viral social media post falsely claimed he signed such an executive order.

The resolution applies to the 2-mile stretch of water from the city shoreline, from its eastern to its western borders. It additionally requires the city clerk to notify Apple and other national mapping companies about this new name.

“President Trump’s orders to assign new names without reference to history, tradition, and other acts of Congress have opened the door for United States officials to rename other geography,” Harsh said. “Thanks to him, this is a man who clearly isn’t afraid to say what no one is thinking.”

Harsh added that Trump’s moves made him “emboldened” to rename Cleveland’s neighboring Great Lake. He held up a map during his speech that showed “Gulf of Cleveland” written over the portion of the lake closest to the city.

Harsh also speculated on any pushback to the renaming before replying to that hypothetical pushback with “Who cares?”

“Listen to me very carefully and jot this down: Words don’t matter,” he added, later mocking Trump’s style of ending Truth Social posts by saying at the end of his own speech: “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Trump’s orders to rename Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico were quickly integrated into Google’s and Apple’s online maps and visible to users in the U.S. International users saw both names, while Canadian and Mexican users, respectively, saw the commonly used names of both bodies of water on the platforms.

It also prompted MapQuest downloads to soar, as the company left the names of both bodies of water unchanged.

Google’s change applied to the Gulf of Mexico led the U.S.’s southern neighbor to sue the tech giant in May 2025. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had warned months earlier that changing the Gulf’s name violated her country’s sovereignty .

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford pushed back on Trump’s order earlier this month, as the move came on the heels of the trade war between the two countries. Ford said the move resembled “something out of ‘Saturday Night Live.'”

The Seneca Nation also called on Trump to reverse the order , stating that it violated the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, which established the nation’s territorial borders.