WASHINGTON — United States President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration is giving serious consideration to renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” escalating the rhetorical conflict between the United States and Canada as a broader bilateral trade dispute intensifies.
Posting on social media, Trump argued that the proposed geographic rebranding reflects deteriorating commercial ties between the two neighbouring nations, stating that the United States does not expect to conduct much ongoing business with the Canadian province of Ontario. The body of water, one of the five Great Lakes, is shared directly between the province of Ontario and the state of New York.
The proposed move follows earlier executive actions taken during Trump’s second administration to unilaterally rename international maritime bodies, including the executive order enacted last year that redesignated the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The renaming suggestion comes against the backdrop of a sharp breakdown in trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa. Over the weekend, the Trump administration enacted 50 percent tariffs targeting approximately 20 billion Canadian dollars’ worth of Canadian imports after bilateral talks collapsed. In response, Canadian officials have prepared retaliatory trade measures to counter the American duties.
