U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, escalating a rhetorical salvo in the ongoing trade dispute with Canada.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that Washington is ‘seriously considering’ renaming the Great Lake that borders the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. ‘The United States is seriously considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, as we no longer expect to do much business with Ontario,’ he stated.
The proposal follows a pattern set last year, when Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in a similar move. Both lakes sit along the U.S.-Canada border and are part of the five Great Lakes of North America.
Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc told CNBC the government would not respond to daily social media posts from the U.S. administration. ‘We decided months ago, as a federal government, not to respond to daily social media posts, whether from the president or his secretaries,’ LeBlanc said in an interview.
The comments come as trade relations between the two countries remain strained, with ongoing disputes over tariffs, subsidies and regulatory measures. The lake’s renaming threat adds to a series of symbolic gestures rather than concrete policy changes.
The lake spans approximately 19,000 square kilometers and is the smallest of the Great Lakes by surface area. It connects to the Gulf of St. Lawrence via the St. Lawrence River and serves as a critical freshwater resource and shipping corridor for both nations.
