{"id":1168888,"date":"2026-08-25T17:35:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168888\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:35:36","slug":"michigan-rep-delivers-epic-natalie-harp-dig-over-trumps-threat-to-rename-lake-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168888\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan rep delivers epic Natalie Harp dig over Trump\u2019s threat to rename Lake Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell<\/a> made a massive dig at Donald Trump<\/a> and his close aide Natalie Harp<\/a> over the president’s threat to rename Lake Ontario<\/a> to the wildly creative \u201cLake America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s just call it Lake Natalie so we know you\u2019ll start protecting our Great Lakes,\u201d Dingell wrote.<\/p>\n

The congresswoman\u2019s comment was a reference to Harp, Trump\u2019s troublingly devoted aide<\/a> who has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks for her comments to Trump and her closeness to him.<\/p>\n

Dingell\u2019s comments come amid Trump\u2019s continued tensions with Canada. In addition to the tariffs he enacted in 2025, Trump announced an additional 50 percent tariff on the nation after a trade negotiation broke down<\/a> over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don\u2019t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,\u201d he wrote on Truth Social. \u201cThank you for your attention to this matter!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. President Donald Trump (R), accompanied by Tiffany Trump’s husband Michael Boulos (L), and aide Natalie Harp (C), looks out the window of Marine One as it lands on the South Lawn of the White House. U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell responded to Trump\u2019s threat to rename Lake Ontario by suggesting if it were renamed to \u2018Lake Natalie\u2019 he might care about the Great Lakes (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Canadian officials largely shrugged off Trump\u2019s threat. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period. We\u2019re proud of our Great Lakes,\u201d Minister of Industry of Canada M\u00e9lanie Joly said during a tariff press conference. \u201cWe\u2019ll just stand up for what we have \u2026 While all these shenanigans are happening, we\u2019ll just be smart, we\u2019ll be strategic, and we\u2019ll fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump made his threat on Tuesday morning after Canada announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.<\/p>\n

Ottawa announced on Tuesday that it was matching the U.S. tariffs \u201cdollar for dollar,\u201d levying a 50 percent duty on more than 700 U.S. goods. <\/p>\n

The most significant of the tariffs is a 50 percent tariff on American steel and aluminum, which doubles the current duty on those products. <\/p>\n

The new tariffs are expected to go into effect on September 8. <\/p>\n

While Trump is facing opposition from Canadian leaders fighting back against his trade war, he is also taking flak domestically for his relationship with Harp. <\/p>\n

On Friday, Trump tried to criticize progressive congressional candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his association with leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. <\/p>\n

El-Sayed responded on social media, asking Harp to put the president down for a nap. <\/p>\n

\u201cNatalie, I think he’s had a little too much iPad for the week. He needs his rest,\u201d the candidate responded. <\/p>\n

It was another Democrat \u2014 Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia \u2014 who pushed Harp into the spotlight on August 16 when he suggested during a speech that Trump doesn\u2019t want to govern, he wants to \u201cbuild his ballroom and travel with Natalie.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. President Donald Trump steps off Marine One along with Natalie Harp, aide to U.S. President Donald Trump after landing at the Ellipse near the White House on August 16, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty)<\/p>\n

Harp, 35, was one of the only people smuggled in a food container alongside Trump when he had to be evacuated from Turkey last month. She reportedly serves as his social media concierge, cultivating \u2014 and printing \u2014 memes and posts she believes he ought to see, according to the New York Times<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Harp was captured in video footage sprinting in pursuit of Trump\u2019s golf cart at the president\u2019s club in Scotland. <\/p>\n

She reportedly apologized for being an \u201cembarrassment\u201d at the golf course sent Trump a note expressing her desire not to sour their relationship. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want things to always be right between us. I also know I\u2019ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time),\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

Harp signed the letter \u201cwith all my heart, Natalie.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1168889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[144785,748,47671,284479,317168,393,262986,1234,4884,44888,317169,12,1144,457,2249,285,20885,712,16,15,37367,659,1764,2176,262672],"class_list":["post-1168888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-assistant","tag-britain","tag-color-image","tag-donald-trump-us-president","tag-ellipse","tag-england","tag-four-people","tag-government","tag-great-britain","tag-horizontal","tag-marine-one","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us-president","tag-usa","tag-wales","tag-washington-dc","tag-white-house-washington-dc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117157361802111679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}