In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America.’ This decision has sparked widespread discussion online, particularly after a satirical social media post from the parody account ‘Jack Kimble’ went viral. The post, which was shared prior to the executive order, led many users to speculate whether the account had somehow predicted Trump’s action. The combination of the viral post and the executive order has drawn significant attention, highlighting the intersection of politics and social media in contemporary discourse.
The account has more than 130,000 followers and has previously fooled news outlets with convincing satirical posts. Trump announced the name change amid the escalating trade tensions between the United States and Canada as both countries impose steep tariffs on each other’s goods.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had vowed to match new American tariffs “dollar-for-dollar” after the United States imposed 50% tariffs on Canadian goods. Jack Kimble is a long-running parody account that describes itself as a Republican representing California’s fictional 54th Congressional District and a “co-sponsor of Poe’s Law. Kimble’s original post read, “President Trump’s second term is off to a GREAT start. I’ll be introducing legislation ASAP to officially change the name of Lake Ontario to its rightful name, Lake America! Let’s make the Great Lakes great again! Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario followed a week of worsening trade tensions between the two countries.
Earlier this year, CNN also issued an on-air apology after quoting a fake statement from the Kimble account regarding Senator Mitch McConnell’s health during a segment.
