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Trump renamed Lake Ontario. Newsrooms still have to decide what to call it

Poynter · Matthew Crowley · last updated

The AP is sticking with Lake Ontario, as it did with Gulf of Mexico. Its decision shows why changing a name doesn’t necessarily change common usage.

For the Associated Press stylebook, Gulf of Mexico stayed. Lake Ontario will, too.

In January 2025, Donald Trump, fresh into his second term, issued an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America and restore the name Mount McKinley to Alaska’s Denali. On Aug. 27, embroiled in a trade war with Canada, Trump issued a new executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America.

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