Trump Suggests Renaming Lake Ontario Amid Escalating Trade War With Canada

Canadian officials say they won’t respond to President Trump’s Tuesday morning social media post that his administration was considering renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America amid a trade war.In his Truth Social post, Mr. Trump said the United States is giving “serious consideration” to the renaming “in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.” The proposal is reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s 2025 executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.Canada’s trade minister, Dominic LeBlanc, said the federal government has made a deliberate decision not to comment on social media posts by the president or members of his administration. “My focus, and the prime minister’s focus, is to build a Canadian economy the best way we can,” Mr. LeBlanc said in an interview on CNBC.Canada is expected on Tuesday to announce retaliatory tariffs against America in response to the Trump administration’s move on Saturday to implement 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods after trade talks faltered.Prime Minister Mark Carney said efforts to reach a comprehensive agreement broke down when the Americans asked for last-minute changes and included “threats on French language and culture and Canadian culture that would never be acceptable for that reason. That marked the end of that stage of negotiations.”In a follow up Truth Social post, Mr. Trump denied making any threats about the French language. “I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing,” Mr. Trump wrote. “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!”The Trump administration previously warned it would implement Section 338 of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in response to alleged violations of trade agreements. That provision allows the 50 percent tariff on a variety of Canadian goods, including dairy, alcoholic beverages, and motor vehicles as well as other items that are supposed to be duty-free under a deal President Trump negotiated with Canada and Mexico in his first term. Ontario is home to Canada’s auto industry, one of the targets of the new tariffs. The provincial premier, Doug Ford, has publicly supported a strong response to the American tariffs and told reporters on Monday what Mr. Trump could do. “I’ve got a lot of real estate on my a– so he has a lot of room to kiss my a–,” Mr. Ford said to laughter.“I just do. I’m a big dude. What can I say,” Mr. Ford added.America is Canada’s largest trading partner and previous tariffs have been a drag on Canada’s economy. Its economy shrunk at a higher-than-expected 1.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter due to significant declines in exports to the United States. Mr. Carney has sought to expand Canadian trade deals to rely less on its southern neighbor. Ottawa has signed 20 new trade deals in the past year and is set to begin discussions with the European Union to build a stronger economic partnership.Speaking at a campaign event Monday evening for House candidate Paul LePage at Brewer Maine, Vice President Vance drew laughs when he inadvertently slipped and called Canada a “state.”“Sorry, Freudian slip,” Mr. Vance said to laughter. “That was actually an accident. Canada is a country that has underinvested in its military, that would quite literally would get invaded by a foreign country were it not for the umbrella of protection provided by the United States of America. And so, how does Canada actually respond to that? By treating the people of Maine fairly? No.They apply ridiculous tariffs and other nontariff duties on Maine products coming into Canada, and they don’t expect Maine or anybody else to fight back? We’re sick of that.”

Trump Suggests Renaming Lake Ontario Amid Escalating Trade War With Canada

Trump Suggests Renaming Lake Ontario Amid Escalating Trade War With Canada

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