President Donald Trump announced he was moving to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, escalating his clash with Canada after trade negotiations between the two nations collapsed.
Trump on Thursday signed a directive changing the name of the lake and said the move would take place “effective immediately.” The president previewed the move in a social media post earlier this week. The order signed by Trump said the Interior Department had 30 days to change the name in federal databases and materials.
“Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade,” Trump told reporters when asked what message he was sending to the US’s northern neighbor. “They want to be treated like they’re a state, and so we just can’t do that anymore.”
Lake Ontario is one of the Great Lakes and straddles the US-Canada border between the state of New York and the province of Ontario. Canada is virtually certain to reject Trump’s unilateral move to rename the body of water.
When Trump first floated the idea earlier this week, Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly said: “We’ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period.” She declined to comment further when asked about the issue during a news conference shortly after the president signed the order.
Throughout his second term, Trump has routinely sought to belittle and humiliate Canada, including by referring to it as the 51st US state, as he criticized the country’s trade practices as unfair to US businesses. Critics, including some members of his own party, have decried the president’s attacks on Canada, calling them a counterproductive affront to one of Washington’s closest allies.
Trump last year renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, another jab at a US neighbor and major trading partner. The name change applies to federal documents and communications and has not been broadly recognized by other countries, including Mexico.
“If you think about it, we have a Gulf and we have a lake now. All we need is an ocean. So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them,” the president said.
Trump’s move marks the latest volley in the trade war between the two traditional allies, which erupted after the US imposed a 50% tariff on billions of dollars worth of Canadian goods after the breakdown of talks. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded with a set of retaliatory duties that are set take effect Sept. 8.
The US president responded by vowing to double tariffs on automobiles and parts from Canada to 50% starting in January. The Trump administration is discussing additional trade penalties and other actions against Canada following the announcement of Ottawa’s countermeasures, Bloomberg News previously reported.
High-level trade talks between the two sides have yet to resume. Negotiations fell apart at the 11th hour after pressure from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who viewed the deal as too generous to Canada, according to people familiar with the matter. Canadian officials have accused Trump’s team of trying to change the terms at the last minute.
Lutnick on Thursday accused Canada of walking away from the table for “political purposes,” with Carney looking to consolidate support ahead of elections in Quebec and a preliminary vote on independence for Alberta scheduled for October.
“My guess will be as soon as his elections are over, you’re going to see a plane full of Canadian negotiators flying down, going, ‘come on, come on, we’ll give it to you before your election.’ We’re just being used by them, right?” Lutnick told reporters in Washington.
Trump has indicated he’s willing to wait, repeatedly insisting that the US does not need Canadian products to fuel the economy. But despite those claims, Trump acknowledged earlier this week that the US relies on Canada for aluminum supplies as the country builds up a domestic industry.
“Selfishly, we need aluminum in this country,” Trump said during a telephone rally for Mike Mazzei, a Republican candidate for governor in Oklahoma. “We don’t have it. We get it all from Canada for the most part, and we need it badly.”
