RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States is giving "serious consideration" to renaming Lake Ontario as "Lake America," the latest escalation in his increasingly bitter dispute with Canada as trade talks between the two countries remain stalled.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump suggested the move was under consideration because the U.S. did not expect to be "doing much business with Ontario any longer." The suggestion lands as relations between Washington and Ottawa are under fresh strain following the breakdown of trade talks and months of sparring between Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford .
Newsweek has contacted Ford’s office and the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for comment.
The president’s remarks come following the breakdown of trade talks between U.S. and Canadian negotiators on Friday.
Carney said last-minute changes by the American side were “unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal,” while U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer blamed Canada for the breakdown and told CNBC’s Squawk Box that Ottawa’s negotiators sought their own 11 th -hour additions.
The U.S. has now imposed 50 percent tariffs on hundreds of Canadian products —targeting certain motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages, and dairy, as well as a host of other goods together worth around $20 billion—and Trump has threatened the same duties on Canadian cars, automotive parts and steel.
Prime Minister Carney has said the country will match these “dollar for dollar,” and Ottawa is preparing to announce a specific set of countermeasures as soon as Tuesday.
Ford has emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of the administration's Canada policies. Ford has previously threatened trade retaliation and restriction s affecting exports to the U.S., making Ontario a frequent focus of Trump's criticism as tensions between the neighboring countries intensify.
Ford has said that his country was prepared for “an economic war.” He told The Associated Press that “everything was on the table” when it came to responding to the new tariffs, including limiting restricting electricity exports and critical mineral supplies from Ontario.
Ford made a similar threat early last year, shortly after Trump’s return to office and following the announcement of tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
Lake Ontario is one of North America's five Great Lakes, sitting on the U.S.-Canada border between Ontario and New York. It is the smallest Great Lake by surface area but serves as a key shipping link between the Great Lakes region and the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway. Major cities on its shores include Toronto, Hamilton and Rochester.
Trump's suggestion that Lake Ontario could become "Lake America" would be the latest example of his efforts to rename or rebrand prominent geographic features since returning to office. In 2025, he ordered federal agencies to adopt the name "Gulf of America" in place of the Gulf of Mexico and restored Mount McKinley as the federal name for Alaska's Denali, reversing a 2015 Obama-era change.
The president has also shown a willingness to use provocative place-naming proposals as a political statement. Earlier this month, he shared an image on Truth Social depicting the Strait of Hormuz as "NEW U.S. Territory" and publicly entertained the idea of asserting U.S. control over the strategically important waterway.
While it remains unclear whether any formal effort will be made to rename Lake Ontario, the proposal fits a broader pattern of Trump using symbolic geographic branding to advance political messages, particularly in disputes involving trade, national identity and U.S. influence abroad.
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