Trump Considers Renaming Canada-US Lake After America

US President Donald Trump has said he is considering renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America” as trade tensions between the United States and Canada escalate.

Trump made the remark in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, saying the US was “giving serious consideration” to changing the name because Washington does not expect to do much business with Ontario anymore.

“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.

He ended the post by thanking readers for their “attention to this matter” and signed it “President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

The proposal comes amid an escalating trade dispute between Washington and Ottawa, with the Trump administration recently imposing 50 per cent tariffs on $20bn worth of Canadian goods. Canada is expected to announce retaliatory measures.

Lake Ontario borders the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York. Ontario is Canada’s most populous province and a major centre of the country’s automobile industry.

Trump’s suggestion also echoes his earlier effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” a move he pursued through an executive order last year.