President Donald Trump said that the United States is considering renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America,” adding a symbolic new front to the escalating trade dispute between Washington and Ottawa.
“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,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Lake Ontario is one of North America’s five Great Lakes and sits along the border between the United States and Canada, with New York state on its southern shore and the Canadian province of Ontario to the north. Toronto, Canada’s largest city, is located on the lake’s northern shore.
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The proposal comes after trade negotiations between the two countries broke down and Washington imposed new tariffs on Canadian goods. The United States has imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian products, while Canada has moved to retaliate with tariffs on U.S. goods.
Ontario is particularly important to the U.S. economy because of its extensive trade ties with American states. Ontario Premier Doug Ford dismissed Trump’s renaming proposal as “a lot of rhetoric” and argued that Ontario remains a major trading partner for the United States.
Canada’s federal government also played down the latest comments. Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister responsible for U.S. trade, said Ottawa had decided not to respond to the U.S. administration’s frequent social media posts.
“We’ve decided as a federal government, months ago, not to respond to sort of the daily social media posts of either the president or his cabinet secretaries,” LeBlanc said in an interview with CNBC, according to Reuters.
Trump repeats renaming strategy
The proposal echoes Trump’s earlier move involving the Gulf of Mexico. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico” in U.S. federal documents and maps.
The Lake Ontario proposal, however, would face a different practical reality because the lake is a shared body of water between the United States and Canada. A unilateral U.S. name would not automatically change Canada’s official usage.
The latest comments come as relations between the two countries deteriorate over tariffs and other trade disagreements. Trump has also threatened additional 50% tariffs on Canadian trucks, auto parts and steel beginning January 1. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged a “dollar for dollar” response to U.S. tariffs.
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The trade dispute has also spilled into a disagreement over Canada’s French-language policies. Trump denied that U.S. demands concerning French-language requirements contributed to the collapse of negotiations, while Carney said Monday that U.S. negotiators had sought changes that could undermine Canada’s French-language protections.
For now, Trump’s Lake America proposal appears primarily symbolic. But it underscores how quickly the economic dispute between two closely integrated North American economies has expanded into a broader diplomatic confrontation.