Topline
President Donald Trump proposed renaming Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ Tuesday, as his trade war with Canada intensifies, with Ottawa preparing to announce retaliatory tariffs Tuesday after the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods over the weekend.
Key Facts
Trump in a Truth Social post Tuesday said he’s giving “serious consideration” to renaming Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ because the U.S. does not “expect to [be] doing much business with Ontario any longer,” and later posted a photo of a map depicting the proposed name change.
Trump’s post singles out Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and a major player in the North American auto industry, with companies like Ford, General Motors, Honda, Stellantis and Toyota assembling vehicles at plants there.
Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister responsible for U.S. trade, in response to the comment told CNBC the country would not respond to the Trump administration’s social media posts.
The proposal comes after the Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods on Saturday following the collapse of trade talks, and threatened 50% tariffs on cars, trucks and auto parts starting in the new year.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to announce retaliatory tariffs Tuesday, which he previously said would go into effect Sept. 8.
Trump’s threat echoes his January 2025 order for the federal government to rename the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America,’ which the U.S. Board on Geographic Names added to the federal geographic names database.
The U.S. and Canada appeared to be closing in on a trade deal last week, but negotiations fell apart Friday after the Trump administration presented a series of demands that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney deemed “unfair” and “uneconomic.” Trump had announced 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods in July, and moved the 30-day window for negotiations back three days to Aug. 21 before talks broke down on Friday, with the tariffs taking effect the next day.
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes and sits along the U.S.-Canada border, with Ontario to the north and New York to the south. Trump’s post alone does not change the lake’s name, but in 2025 he successfully directed the U.S. government to adopt ‘Gulf of America’ for federal use.
“We’ve decided as a federal government months ago not to respond to sort of the daily social media posts of either the president or his cabinet secretaries.” (LeBlanc on CNBC)
Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, has strongly pushed back against Trump, with the two exchanging insults as the dispute intensified and Ford warning that Ontario could use electricity and critical minerals as leverage against the U.S.
It’s unclear whether Trump intends to pursue an actual federal process to rename Lake Ontario. Even if the U.S. government adopted the name, the change would not determine what Canada or the rest of the world calls the lake.
Ottawa is expected to announce the details of retaliatory tariffs Tuesday, which could potentially create an opening for renewed negotiations or further escalate the trade fight between the two countries.
Canada’s Doug Ford Calls Trump A ‘Dictator’ As ‘Economic War’ Escalates (Forbes)
Trump Renaming Gulf Of Mexico To ‘Gulf Of America.’ Here’s What He Can—And Can’t—Do. (Forbes)
Source: www.forbes.com
