RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 24 sourcesPresident suggested this week he might officially rename Lake Ontario as relations between the US and Canada continue to deteriorate
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In a new video, President Donald Trump used his trusty Sharpie to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as his trade war with Canada escalates .
In a clip posted to the president’s TikTok account on Wednesday, Trump sat in the Oval Office displaying a map of Lake Ontario , which straddles the U.S.-Canada border.
“We’re gonna make a little change; we’re gonna call it something different than Lake Ontario,” the 80-year-old president said. “We’re gonna call it Lake America. And all it takes is a good pen and some intelligence.” Trump, a former real estate mogul with a penchant for branding, then used a Sharpie to cross out the lake’s name and write “LAKE AMERICA” above it.
“Now we have a gulf because we have the Gulf of America,” he said, referring to his decision last year to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico . “And now we have Lake America without the ‘of.’ Enjoy Lake America.”
The clip was posted a day after the Republican president suggested that he might officially rename the Great Lake as relations between Washington and Ottawa — which have soured since Trump took office — continue to deteriorate.
“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to [be] doing much business with Ontario any longer,” he wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.
The Board on Geographic Names, a government agency, oversees the use of geographic names by the federal government, but even if it approved a name change for Lake Ontario, other countries would not be required to adopt it.
Trump’s proposed rebranding comes amid a bitter trade war between the U.S. and Canada – longtime allies and trading partners. On Saturday, the U.S. imposed 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods after last-minute talks broke down. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who likened the move to an act of war, responded with retaliatory levies of up to 50 percent.
The economic standoff has also spilled into a war of words. Trump singled out Ontario Premier Doug Ford in a Truth Social post, describing him as a blustering “flunky” who needs to “fall in line.”
Ford responded by calling Trump a “dictator” and “ the king of bankruptcies ,” adding that the president can “kiss my a**.”
Trump’s use of a Sharpie in the newly released video should hardly come as a surprise. He is fond of the marker and frequently uses it during official and unofficial proceedings.
During a Cabinet meeting in March, he went on a lengthy tangent about Sharpie , a U.S.-based company owned by Newell Brands.
“This pen is very inexpensive, but it writes well, I like it,” Trump said while holding up an all-black marker. “But I can't have the pen the way it was — you know what it is? I don't want to give too much publicity, but they do treat me well, Sharpie.”
He then regaled his deputies — and members of the press — with a story about how he had managed to procure custom-made markers at a low cost for the White House after speaking by phone with “the head of Sharpie.” Trump said he used to pay $1,000 for the pens but now pays $5 for the custom all-black markers, which he called “hot as a pistol.”
A spokesperson for Newell Brands later told The Washington Post : “We don’t have any information about the conversation described.”
During his first term, Trump also reportedly used a Sharpie to alter a weather chart showing the predicted path of Hurricane Dorian.
During a press event at the White House in September 2019, a black curved line on a chart displayed by Trump appeared to extend from the storm’s projected path to take in Alabama. He had previously said the hurricane might hit Alabama, something meteorologists disputed.
Trump never confirmed he added the line himself, though sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that it had indeed been drawn by the president.
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