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Trump considers renaming Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ as Canada-U.S. trade war intensifies
Posted Aug 25, 2026 07:38:44 AM.
Last Updated Aug 25, 2026 09:20:17 AM.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is considering renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” as a trade war between Canada and the U.S. escalates.
“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,” a post on Truth Social states.
Such a change would be reminiscent of the Republican president’s unilateral action last year by executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Trump sent a follow-up, touching on Carney’s assertions that, during last-minute trade negotiations, Trump had been planning on weakening French language and culture.
“I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing,” Trump’s Truth Social post read. “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! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
These latest posts come amid escalating tensions between Canada and the U.S. over collapsed trade talks and a war of words between Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended trade talks with the U.S. late Friday, accusing the latter of trying to introduce last-minute demands which would limit Canada’s ability to make trade deals with other countries and protect its culture and sovereignty.
“In short, they asked too much, and they offered too little,” Carney said Saturday.
During a radio interview on Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford told U.S. President Donald Trump to “kiss [his] ass.” Trump, in one of his meandering Truth Social posts, later called Ford a “flunky” and compared him unfavourably to his deceased brother and former Toronto mayor, Rob Ford.
Meanwhile, the federal government is set to unveil details of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. on Tuesday. Carney said on Saturday the counter-tariffs would kick in on Sept. 8.
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
