Trump Proposes Renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America

Trump threatens to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America amid ongoing trade tensions with Canada, escalating the conflict in U.S.-Canada relations.

In a striking escalation of trade tensions, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. This provocative statement came on Tuesday via a post on Truth Social, as the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and Canada heats up.

“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,” Trump declared in his post. Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes, is situated along the U.S.-Canada border, with Canada’s largest city, Toronto, on its northern shores.

The suggestion to rename the lake marks a new battleground in the escalating spat between the two nations regarding trade. The tension surged last week when Canada walked away from negotiations, prompting the U.S. to impose new tariffs on a range of Canadian goods over the weekend. The situation intensified further on Monday, when Trump announced plans for an additional 50% tariff on Canadian-made products, which is scheduled to take effect on January 1.

In his post, Trump emphasized his view that Canada has been taking unfair advantage of the United States, stating, “Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years. Canada will be treated like a State no longer!” This rhetoric signals a tougher stance by the Trump administration toward its northern neighbor.

In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hinted at retaliatory measures, asserting that Canada would match the U.S. tariffs “dollar-for-dollar” starting September 8, with more details expected to be announced soon.

If Trump goes ahead with his threat to rename Lake Ontario, it would not be the first time he has attempted to alter the name of a body of water. On the first day of his second term in January 2025, Trump issued an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This name change was subsequently reflected on Google and Apple Maps in the United States, while users outside the country still see the region labeled as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”

The name ‘Ontario’ has origins in the word ‘Ontarí’io’, which means “great lake” in the language of the indigenous Wyandot people.

As trade tensions continue to escalate, the fate of Lake Ontario’s name hangs in the balance, a symbol of the increasingly strained relationship between the U.S. and Canada.