Donald Trump has signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario on the US-Canada border to Lake America as a trade stoush between the two nations turns nasty.
The order directs federal agencies to roll out the name change on US maps, documents and databases. Mr Trump has no authority to rename Canada’s side of the lake nor compel any other country, international legal body or mapmaker carry out the change.
The US president also suggested the Pacific Ocean could be next in line for a name change.
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“We have a gulf and we have a lake – now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific,” he told reporters, sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. “Maybe we’ll change them both.”
A poster of the Great Lakes region with “Lake America” printed in red letting over Lake Ontario was propped up behind the president.
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On Tuesday, Mr Trump said the US was giving “serious consideration” to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America because “we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer,” he wrote in a social media post.
Shortly after, he backed that up with an image of a map of the region showing the name Lake Ontario crossed out and replaced with “Lake America” and the US flag – notably placed over Canadian territory.
Canada’s biggest city Toronto sits on the shores of Lake Ontario, which divides the province of Ontario from the US state of New York. Niagara Falls is close to Lake Ontario.
Mr Trump’s remarks came hours after Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous state which also includes the capital of Ottawa, said Mr Trump could “kiss his a**” after even more tariffs were flagged for Canada. Mr Trump called him a “loser”.
The move comes as a trade fued between the two allies turns sour.
The highly-publicised rift between the two nations has become increasingly personal over recent weeks, with Mr Trump demanding Canadians “fall in line” with the US.
Talks collapsed late last week after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected conditions he said would restrict Canada’s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.
The US disputes that account, accusing Ottawa of introducing new demands and abandoning earlier commitments.
Washington subsequently imposed 50 per cent tariffs on more than 550 Canadian products worth about $US20 billion ($28 billion).
On Tuesday, Canada announced almost $30 billion worth of US counters tariffs that will come into effect on September 8. They will be on a sliding scale of between 15 and 50 per cent and will include seafood, furniture, paper products tools and motorbikes. A 50 per cent levy will apply to some dairy and lumber products and cosmetics. Tariffs on US steel and aluminium will rise from 25 per cent to 50 per cent.
According the Office of the US Trade Representatives, in 2024 the US had a goods trade deficit with Canada of $US48.3 billion – that included commodities like lumbar, oil and cars. But that’s partly offset by a US surplus of $US27.7 billion of services to Canada, which includes Canadians travelling to the US as well as telecommunications, streaming services and IT.
The day he took office in 2024, Mr Trump signed an executive order directing government departments replace their use of The Gulf of Mexico name with Gulf of America. While some US companies now also refer to “Gulf of America” it’s not a legally binding term and it’s not the internationally recognised name.
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