Trump says US will rename Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ amid trade war with Canada

It’s the second time the president has attempted to change the name of a body of water bordering the United States — and while Trump said he wasn’t trying to send a message to Canada, he’s already slapped Ottawa with punishing new tariffs.WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration would rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” a move he teased this week amid an escalating trade war with Canada that’s seen Washington slap its northern neighbor with tens of billions of dollars in new tariffs.But while the president said his executive order relabeling one of the Great Lakes separating the U.S. and Canada was not intended as a message to Ottawa, he doubled down on his administration’s claim that the country had been “ripping us off” in international trade.It’s the second time in a little over a year the Trump administration has attempted to rename a body of water bordering the U.S. — the White House last year issued an executive decree changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the “Gulf of America.” The president’s latest foray into cartography, however, appears closely tied to his deepening trade rifts with Canada.Washington last week imposed a 50% tariff on a broad swath of Canadian exports, amounting to roughly $20 billion in goods. The move followed weeks of negotiations between the U.S. and Canada over what the Trump administration has framed as unfair trade practices by Ottawa. Those talks, however, collapsed late last week before the new tariffs were announced.Trump earlier this week teased his “Lake America” order, posting an image to his social media platform Truth Social depicting a map of Lake Ontario with its label crossed out and the words “Lake America” superimposed in glossy gold lettering.While the move came just days after he escalated a trade war with Canada, the president’s executive order signed Thursday afternoon does not mention the country at all. The measure is framed as an effort to honor the “extraordinary contributions of the American people and the rich heritage of our history by naming great natural landmarks for our shared achievements.”In justifying his right to rename Lake Ontario, Trump said the deepest portions of the body of water reside within U.S. territory, and thus, Washington “claims most of the lake’s volume.”“The United States is the greatest protector of the Great Lakes, including the body of water currently known as Lake Ontario,” the executive order read. “Without the security and investment provided by the United States, this freshwater system would not be open for shipping, recreation, and responsible use to the same extent as it is today.”Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump claimed his move to rename one of the largest bodies of water shared by the U.S. and Canada was unrelated to the ongoing trade war between the two countries.“No message,” he said — but added that Canada “has been ripping us off for a long time on trade.”“They don’t pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they’re not a state,” Trump continued. “We lose on average, over the last 15 years, $60 billion a year carrying Canada, so we just can’t do it anymore. We love the people of Canada, but I don’t think their representatives do an appropriate job. Maybe they’ll change.”The president has previously floated the idea of making Canada the 51st U.S. state, an idea that was met with consternation both at home and across the border. Trump has also contended for years that Ottawa has pursued an imbalanced trade policy with the U.S.“People oftentimes ask me, ‘who’s the worst to deal with on trade?’” Trump said. “And I say: ‘That’s easy — Canada.’ They are the worst to trade, and they feel entitled, and we just can’t have that.”The administration’s push to rename Lake Ontario is likely to remain largely symbolic. Though the executive order directs the Interior Department and the Board on Geographic Names to use “Lake America” in U.S. government references to the Great Lake and remove all mention of Lake Ontario, no foreign governments are bound by the name change.None of the other four Great Lakes appear to be subject to renaming.The “Gulf of America” designation for the Gulf of Mexico, meanwhile, has struggled to stick. Mexico and Canada have both refused to use Trump’s new name for the body of water bordering the southern U.S. Google, however, shows the Trump-ordained label for the gulf on its maps function.Ottawa announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports on Tuesday, also to the tune of around $20 billion. The new import duties, which take effect next month, are designed to target industrial and agricultural markets in states with larger populations of Trump voters.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads