WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he will rename Lake Ontario to be known as “Lake America” in the United States as he escalates his trade war with Canada. The Republican president signed an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to update the lake’s name in the United States Geographic Names Service. However, Trump cannot force Canada to follow his preferred naming convention. Trump has been floating the idea of the name change in recent days as the United States announced it would impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries collapsed. Trump has been badgering America’s northern neighbor since returning to the White House last year, suggesting that the ally with whom the United States once had warm relations should be absorbed as the 51st state. Canada responded to Trump’s import taxes this week by imposing retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of U.S. products, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment. AP AUDIO: Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ in the United States AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports that President Trump approved the renaming of Lake Ontario in the U.S. Trump, who signed the order while sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, had a large sign behind him leaning on a stand with a map of the Great Lakes. Above Lake Ontario, in big red letters, the map read “Lake America.” On the other side of the president was another map with the words “MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN BIGGER.” Trump said as he signed the order that he had “notified all the people we need to notify. So we’ve done everything they needed to do.” “And this is official, with immediate effect,” he added. But the executive order Trump signed shows the changes are supposed to happen within 30 days. Sign up for the Ground Game newsletter: your guide to the biggest stories in American politics, policy and elections. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston dismissed Trump’s move in a social media post, writing, “We’re in real bullshit now. It’s Lake Ontario, man.” There is no single international body that determines the names of international bodies of water, and Trump has wide latitude over how the U.S. government recognizes geographic landmarks and places. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has traded insults with Trump, this week dismissed the possibility of Trump changing the lake’s name as “too much rhetoric.” The name Lake Ontario comes from the Huron indigenous people’s word “oniatari:io,” which means “lake of shining waters.” The province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake. Trump said that while his action was not intended to send any particular geopolitical message, “Canada has been shortchanging us for a long time” on trade and military issues. “They wanted to be treated like a state and they are not,” the president said. “We just can’t do that anymore.” “We love the people of Canada,” Trump added. “I don’t think their representatives do a proper job. Maybe they’ll change. I really don’t know. It doesn’t make much difference.” The move is reminiscent of his decision last year to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” Trump scribbled his name with a Sharpie pen on the executive order, then held it up to the cameras and said, “And we submitted all the necessary papers, documents and everything else.” He also suggested that his initiative to rename bodies of water may not be over. “So if you think about it, we have a gulf and a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” Trump said. “So maybe we have to rename the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we will change them.”___Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
