Does a real map show that as far back as 1688 "Lac America" was the established name of the body of water between the U.S. and Canada? No, that's not true: The name of the lake in the 1688 map drawn by Pierre Raffeix has been altered with AI tools. The words in the original map title and lake label 'Lac Ontario' have been swapped for 'Lac America' -- a French translation of the new 'Lake America' name change ordered by Donald Trump on Aug. 27, 2026.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the u/YaharaRiver account on the forum patriots.win on Sept. 23, 2026. It read:
😂 in your FACE libtards!!
This is what the post looked like on patriots.win at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by u/YaharaRiver on patriots.win.)
The image has text above and below the altered map that reads:
A French map from 1688
Lake Ontario used to be Lac America before Canada or the United States existed.
The More You Know.
This is false. A scan of the original map (archived here) is in the collection of the University of Toronto Libraries (pictured below). The title of the map, appearing in the upper left corner, is LE LAC ONTARIO avec les lieux circonvoisins & particulièrement les cinq nations Iroquoises. The map is dated: Lannée 1688. The lake, the main focus of the map, is labeled "Lac Ontario ou de Saint Louis," this label recognises Ontario, the indigenous Iroquois language name of the lake (archived here), as well as an alternative name, Saint Louis, which had been recorded by French cartographer Samuel de Champlain in a 1632 map (archived here) of Nouvelle France (New France).
(Image source: University of Toronto Libraries.)
Lead Stories cropped the meme and uploaded the Lac America map image to the Verify tool at OpenAI (archived here). The tool found a SynthID watermark (pictured below) indicating the image was made with OpenAI tools.
(Image source: OpenAI.)
On Aug. 27, 2026, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14422 (archived here) which begins:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. As I announced in Executive Order 14172 of January 20, 2025 (Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness), it is the policy of my Administration to recognize the extraordinary contributions of the American people and the rich heritage of our history by naming great natural landmarks for our shared achievements. The United States is the greatest protector of the Great Lakes, including the body of water currently known as Lake Ontario.
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This claim was also investigated by AFP Fact Check and Snopes.
