President Trump on Tuesday said he wants to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” opening a new front in the trade war with Canada.
Mr. Trump’s proposal deepened his war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and, if carried out, would mirror his contentious renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America at the start of his second term.
“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Mr. Trump said on social media.
Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes, is located between the state of New York and the Canadian province from which it takes its name. Cities such as Toronto and Rochester sit on the large body of water.
Mr. Trump proposed the name change after imposing 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods on Saturday. He carried out his tariff threat after trade talks with Canada collapsed.
Canadian officials said the U.S. made unacceptable demands and vowed to retaliate with “dollar-for-dollar” tariffs on American products, starting Sept. 8.
SEE ALSO: ‘We don’t need Canada’: Trump threatens northern neighbor with more tariffs on cars, trucks
Mr. Carney said talks broke down in part because the U.S. side wanted to threaten French-language protections, including a streaming-content rule requiring American platforms like Netflix to promote French and Canadian content.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer rejected the claim, calling it a “funny fake story.”
The Trump administration often balks at attempts by other countries to impose taxes on U.S. tech companies, or laws that require the companies to behave a certain way.
“I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This lie was made up by a weak and ineffective Prime Minister in an attempt to gain political support, which he has totally lost, from the people of Quebec. I love French Canadians!”
