Pennsylvania Lawmaker Urges Donald Trump to Rebrand Lake Erie as 'Lake Pennsylvania'

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker is seeking federal support to rebrand Lake Erie, asking President Donald Trump to officially designate the major body of water as "Lake Pennsylvania." State Representative David Maloney, a Republican, is preparing a formal legislative resolution urging the White House, the Department of the Interior, and Congress to initiate the federal name change.

Maloney’s proposed resolution specifically calls upon President Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and members of Capitol Hill to take the necessary administrative and legislative steps to enact the renaming. The state lawmaker maintains that updating the historic name is essential to properly reflect the waterway's contemporary identity and its significance to the commonwealth.

In advocating for the change, Maloney highlighted the vital role the lake plays in supporting local commerce, outdoor recreation, and regional tourism. He emphasized that the lake's modern economic footprint is profoundly linked to the vast community of anglers, recreational boaters, traveling families, and vacationers who utilize the body of water each year.

The lawmaker also argued that neighboring jurisdictions already have abundant representation across the Great Lakes system, making Pennsylvania’s single shoreline unique. Maloney pointed out that Ohio possesses extensive Great Lakes shoreline, New York already borders two separate Great Lakes, and Canada borders four others. Because Pennsylvania is connected to only one Great Lake, Maloney contended that it should officially bear the state’s namesake.

According to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lake Erie is the shallowest of all the Great Lakes and holds the smallest volume of water among the five. The lake's expansive watershed supports approximately 12 million residents, including roughly 10.5 million people situated within the United States and about 1.9 million individuals residing in Canada.

Maloney's push comes in the wake of a series of high-profile federal renaming actions spearheaded by the Trump administration. Just last month, President Trump issued an executive order directing the federal government to redesignate Lake Ontario as "Lake America," a unilateral rebranding effort that has generated substantial friction with international neighbors and local leaders.

The redesignation of Lake Ontario was met with immediate resistance from Canadian officials, who stated that they do not recognize the altered terminology. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney formally rejected the measure, remarking that while the United States may alter its domestic policies, trade ties, national monuments, and hydronyms, Canadians will continue to recognize the water body exclusively as Lake Ontario.

Opposition to the federal renaming campaign has also emerged domestically from state officials bordering the shared waters. New York Governor Kathy Hochul firmly dismissed the administration's decision to rename Lake Ontario, underscoring the divide between federal directives and state-level recognition.

Under existing legal and jurisdictional frameworks, executive orders altering geographical designations apply strictly to the U.S. federal government and its administrative agencies. Consequently, international bodies, foreign sovereign nations like Canada, and individual U.S. states are not legally mandated to adopt or acknowledge the revised titles within their own jurisdictions.

Despite these jurisdictional limits, private technology corporations have actively adapted to the administration's federal policy shifts. Major digital navigation providers, including Google Maps and Apple Maps, updated their cartographic services to display "Lake America" instead of Lake Ontario for users accessing their platforms within the United States.

This digital compliance follows a similar pattern established early in the administration's tenure. On his first day returning to office in January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America." While the order similarly lacked the authority to bind Mexico or international organizations, both Apple Maps and Google Maps instituted region-based interface modifications to display the updated name to domestic U.S. devices.

The administration’s geographical renaming initiatives have extended well beyond North American lakes and gulfs. President Trump has publicly floated additional concepts for sweeping maritime renamings, including suggesting that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans could potentially be rechristened under new nomenclature.

The White House has also raised the prospect of renaming existing U.S. states, including suggesting that New Mexico be retitled "New America." That proposal prompted pushback from several Democratic lawmakers representing New Mexico, who formally appealed to major tech platforms like Google and Apple to commit to preserving the state's historical name on their digital mapping applications.

As Maloney finalizes his resolution in the Pennsylvania legislature, the effort to rename Lake Erie highlights how federal hydronym policies continue to inspire state-level proposals, bringing local waterways directly into the national debate over geographic identity and federal authority.