Thursday, August 27, 2026

What can a President Name? What can a President not Name? Why and why not? How?

Questions based on the following article from the Washington Post:  

Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, escalating Canada feud.

Key detail: 


In the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump signed an order requiring that the U.S. Interior Department update geographic information systems to change the name of the lake, located between New York and Canada. Canadian government officials playing hardball on trade, he said, are “nasty people.”

“We filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else,” Trump said. “We notified all the various people that we have to notify. So we’ve done everything that you have to do. And this is official, effective immediately.”

But there are limits: 

"While Trump can change the lake’s name for U.S. government purposes, states and private companies — including those responsible for consumer maps — can decide whether to follow suit."

Some companies are going along with the renaming. Some are not.

"Soon after Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico name change, Google Maps announced that users in the United States would see the body of water’s name rendered as the Gulf of America while users in Mexico would still see it rendered the Gulf of Mexico. In the rest of the world, people see both: “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”

That name change also set off a legal fight between the White House and the Associated Press, which announced it would continue to use the term Gulf of Mexico in coverage. The White House then banned the wire service’s reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One, prompting the AP to file suit.
Part of the inherent powers of the chief executive - the head of the executive department - is the power to determing how executive agencies refer to things like lakes and gulfs."

  

Terms contained in the article include: 

- U.S. Interior Department
- geographic information systems
- tariffs