A Republican state representative from Pennsylvania wants President Trump to put his pen to work one more time and rename one of the Great Lakes. State Rep. Joe Hamm sent a letter to the White House asking Trump to rebrand Lake Erie as "Lake Pennsylvania," a move he says would honor the commonwealth's contributions to the nation and align with the president's recent enthusiasm for renaming landmarks.
Hamm, who represents the 84th District in north-central Pennsylvania, sent the letter to Trump pointing to the president's executive orders renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" and restoring Mount McKinley's name in Alaska. Hamm argued that the same logic should extend to Lake Erie, given Pennsylvania's role in American history and its status as a key electoral state that helped deliver Trump's 2024 victory.
In his letter, Hamm leaned into Pennsylvania's historical weight. He cited the state's role in the founding of the republic, its industrial contributions, and its place as a political battleground. He also noted that Pennsylvania voters backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election, framing the renaming as a gesture of recognition.
"Pennsylvania has played a vital role in the history and development of the United States, from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to its contributions to industry, agriculture, and national defense."
Hamm also made the case that the name change would carry symbolic value for the state's identity and its relationship with the federal government. He described the proposal as consistent with Trump's broader pattern of using executive authority to reshape how American landmarks are identified on federal maps and documents.
The proposal leans directly on Trump's early second-term executive orders. Shortly after taking office in January 2025, Trump signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" on federal maps and documents. He also signed an order restoring the name Mount McKinley to the Alaskan peak that the Obama administration had officially renamed Denali in 2015, reverting to the name honoring President William McKinley.
Those moves drew both praise and criticism. Supporters saw them as assertions of American identity and presidential prerogative. Critics called them symbolic overreach. Hamm's letter positions the Lake Erie proposal squarely in the "assertion" camp, treating the earlier renamings as a template rather than an anomaly.
Lake Erie borders four U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario. Pennsylvania's shoreline along the lake is the shortest of the four states. Ohio, New York, and Michigan all hold longer stretches of Lake Erie coastline. That geographic reality could complicate any serious push to rebrand the lake after a single state.
The lake's current name derives from the Erie people, a Native American nation that historically inhabited the region south of the lake. Renaming it would erase that connection from federal usage, a point that could draw opposition from tribal organizations and historians.
No formal legislative vehicle accompanies Hamm's request. The letter is directed at the president, asking for executive action rather than proposing a bill through the Pennsylvania General Assembly or the U.S. Congress. Whether the White House has received or responded to the letter has not been publicly confirmed.
Hamm's district sits in north-central Pennsylvania, far from the Lake Erie shoreline. The city of Erie, Pennsylvania's fourth-largest city and the only municipality in the state that sits on the lake, has not publicly weighed in on the proposal. Erie County, which includes the city, went for Trump in 2024 after flipping between parties in recent cycles.
The proposal has not drawn co-sponsors or formal endorsements from other Pennsylvania lawmakers. Republican leaders in the state legislature have not commented publicly on the idea. Democrats in the General Assembly have not issued formal responses either, though the proposal's reception on social media has been mixed, with critics calling it a stunt and supporters calling it a creative use of presidential authority.
Federal geographic naming authority runs through the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, an interagency body that has operated since 1890. The board handles standardization of place names across federal documents and maps. Presidents have historically deferred to the board's process, though Trump's Gulf of America and Mount McKinley orders demonstrated that executive action can override or bypass that process.
Legal challenges to the Gulf of America renaming have not produced rulings blocking the change. That precedent, still fresh, gives proposals like Hamm's at least a theoretical path. But renaming a body of water shared with a foreign country raises additional diplomatic questions. Canada's portion of Lake Erie falls under Canadian naming authority, meaning any U.S. name change would apply only to American federal usage.
The result would be a lake with two official names split along an international border. That situation is not unprecedented in global geography, but it would be unusual for the Great Lakes, which have carried consistent English-language names across both countries for centuries.
The proposal sits entirely in the president's hands, assuming the letter reaches the White House. Trump has not publicly addressed the idea. No executive order drafting process related to Lake Erie's name has been reported. The proposal remains, for now, a request from a single state lawmaker without institutional backing or a formal policy mechanism behind it.
Hamm has not indicated whether he plans to pursue state-level legislation if the White House does not act. He has not announced a timeline or follow-up strategy. The proposal's future depends on whether it catches the president's attention and whether the administration sees political value in extending its renaming efforts to the Great Lakes.
When a lawmaker asks a president to rename a lake that four states and a foreign country share, the request tells you less about geography than about where the political energy is right now.
