Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America," escalating his trade war with Canada after talks between the countries collapsed. The order gives the Interior Department 30 days to update the name in federal records, though Trump said the change was "effective immediately." Other countries do not have to follow, and no single international body names international waters.
What is the backdrop? The order followed 50% US tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods, imposed when the talks broke down. Canada, PBS NewsHour reported, answered with retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment.
What did the president say? Signing in the Oval Office, Trump said the order was not a direct message to Canada, but that the country "has been ripping us off for a long time on trade," the BBC reported. In remarks carried by PBS NewsHour, he said of Canada: "They wanted to be treated like a state and they're not a state." He called Canadian officials "nasty people," DW reported, and said the rename was "something I've been thinking about for a long time." Recalling his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, he said "all we need is an ocean" and floated renaming the Atlantic, the Pacific or both.
What has the reaction been in Canada? Prime Minister Mark Carney said the lake's name comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, meaning "the lake is beautiful, the lake is big," and predates both Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence. "Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always," he wrote. Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote that it is "Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world," the BBC reported.
Who else has responded? New York Governor Kathy Hochul said her state, the only one bordering the lake, would not call it Lake America. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum applauded the order, the BBC reported. Democratic lawmaker Debbie Dingell of Michigan called the order "idiotic" and said she would introduce a bill to nullify it. Vermont's Republican governor, quoted by The Hill, called the order "petty and disappointing." The Seneca Nation requested a reversal of the order, The Hill reported.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
