Fact check: Viral ‘Lake America’ post mixes real name changes with false, misleading claims

By Shereen Siewert | Wausau Pilot & Review

A viral Facebook post defending President Donald Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario as “Lake America” mixes accurate history with outdated, misleading and false claims, a review shows.

The post, which has circulated widely on Facebook in recent days, argues that the new name is not a rebranding but a “correction,” saying the lake “just remembered who it always belonged to: the U.S.A.”

That is not accurate.

Trump signed an executive order Aug. 27 directing the U.S. Department of the Interior and Board on Geographic Names to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” for federal use. The order directs federal agencies to update maps, documents and the Geographic Names Information System. Google Maps has since begun displaying “Lake America” to users in the United States.

But Lake Ontario is an international body of water shared by the United States and Canada. The international boundary runs through the lake, with New York along its U.S. shore and the province of Ontario along its Canadian shore. The American naming decision has no authority over what Canada calls the lake.

Nor is “Lake America” the restoration of an earlier American name.

Canadian government records say Lake Ontario was referred to by that name in Jesuit records around 1641, more than a century before the United States declared independence. The name is derived from an Indigenous language, although government sources differ somewhat on the precise translation.

The Facebook post then uses a long list of renamed places, products, sports teams, military installations and institutions to argue that political liberals spent the past decade changing names “to fit the values of the people in charge.”

Many of those individual name changes are real.

Aunt Jemima became Pearl Milling Company. The Cleveland Indians became the Guardians. Yale renamed Calhoun College for computer pioneer Grace Hopper. Princeton removed Woodrow Wilson’s name from its public policy school. The Boy Scouts of America became Scouting America.

But those decisions were made independently by private companies, professional sports teams, universities, nonprofit organizations and different levels of government. They were not part of a single federal policy or coordinated political effort.

Other examples in the post are outdated or misleading.

The post lists “Mount McKinley ? Denali” as an example of a liberal-era name change. The Obama administration did officially adopt Denali in 2015, following decades of support for the Indigenous name in Alaska.

But Trump changed the federal name back to Mount McKinley in January 2025.

The same problem appears in the post’s section on Army installations.

Fort Bragg became Fort Liberty, Fort Benning became Fort Moore and Fort Hood became Fort Cavazos after Congress required the military to remove names honoring Confederate figures.

All three have since been renamed again under the Trump administration.

Fort Liberty returned to Fort Bragg in 2025, but it now honors World War II paratrooper Roland L. Bragg rather than Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. Fort Moore returned to Fort Benning, this time honoring World War I soldier Fred G. Benning. Fort Cavazos returned to Fort Hood, now honoring World War I officer Robert B. Hood rather than Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood.

The post also says “Columbus Day” was changed to “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”

That is false at the federal level.

Some states and local governments recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and President Joe Biden issued annual proclamations recognizing it. But federal law still designates the second Monday in October as Columbus Day. The federal government’s 2026 holiday calendar lists Oct. 12 as Columbus Day.

Another example — “Mr. Potato Head ? Potato Head” — leaves out an important distinction.

Hasbro renamed the overall product brand Potato Head in 2021, but the company explicitly said the individual Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head characters would keep their names.

The weakest section of the Facebook post is labeled “THE DICTIONARY ITSELF.”

It claims, among other things, that “mentally ill” was replaced by “non binary.”

That is simply false.

The two expressions describe entirely different concepts. “Nonbinary” is a term for gender identities that are not exclusively male or female, according to the American Psychological Association. It is not a substitute for mental illness, nor does it mean mentally ill.

The post also claims “women” has been replaced by “birthing persons.”

Again, no such general replacement has occurred.

Some medical organizations use terms such as “pregnant people” or other gender-inclusive language when discussing populations that can include women, transgender men and nonbinary patients. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists explicitly describes that approach as language intended to include women and other patients who need obstetric or gynecologic care, not to eliminate the word “women.”

The claim that “Hispanic” was replaced by “Latinx” is similarly inaccurate.

Latinx emerged as an alternative gender-neutral term but never displaced Hispanic or Latino. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found just 4% of Hispanic adults said they used Latinx to describe themselves, while 75% of those familiar with the term said it should not be used to describe Hispanics or Latinos.

The Facebook post is on firmer ground when it says Canada runs a trade surplus with the United States, although it leaves out significant context.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative says the United States had a $48.3 billion goods trade deficit with Canada in 2025, but a $27.7 billion surplus in services. That means Canada did have an overall advantage in bilateral trade under those estimates, but not across every category.

The post’s assertion that Canada “hides behind our military” is an opinion rather than a measurable fact.

Canada and the United States have jointly operated the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, since 1958. It is a binational command responsible for aerospace warning and defense of North America. NATO also reported this year that every member country, including Canada, met or exceeded the alliance’s previous target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense in 2025.

Taken individually, many of the Facebook post’s examples are accurate. Names have unquestionably changed across American public life, sometimes because of objections to racial stereotypes, Confederate commemorations or language that institutions considered outdated.

But the post collapses decisions by companies, universities, municipalities, sports organizations, Congress and presidential administrations into the actions of a single political “they.” It also omits reversals that undermine its premise and includes several assertions that are demonstrably untrue.

Most importantly, Lake Ontario did not “always belong” to the United States, and “Lake America” is not the restoration of an old American name.

It is a new name ordered by the Trump administration in August 2026 for use in the United States — for a lake that Americans and Canadians continue to share.