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Lake Ontario renamed
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as the trade war between the United States and Canada intensifies.
“President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America””
Trump wrote on social media, “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,” and the Associated Press described the move as reminiscent of his executive order last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The dispute is tied to tariffs and retaliation after talks between the countries broke down, with the Associated Press saying Canada was expected to announce retaliatory measures Tuesday in response to “50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods over the weekend.”
The Associated Press also reported that Trump told Canadian leaders Monday to “fall in line” or face consequences “far WORSE” than existing tariffs, while Prime Minister Mark Carney accused Washington of trying to subordinate Canada.
In the same escalation, Trump threatened new 50% tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts and steel, as Carney said U.S. trade demands showed Washington wanted to “destroy our major industries,” including autos, steel and aluminum.
French language feud
Trump’s Lake Ontario proposal came alongside a dispute over French-language protections, with Fox News saying he accused Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of lying about the U.S. position.
Fox News quoted Trump rejecting claims the U.S. sought concessions affecting the French language during the recently collapsed trade negotiations, writing, “I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French!”
The Associated Press reported that Carney said U.S. negotiators raised “the discoverability of French-language content on streaming platforms, along with French-language labeling rules, as trade irritants,” and Carney rejected the idea those protections were negotiable.
Carney said in French, “For the Americans, questions about the French language, Quebec culture, francophone culture and Canadian culture are irritants. Here in Quebec, here in Canada, they are rights.”
Fox News also reported that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer disputed Carney’s characterization, calling the French-language dispute a “funny, fake story” and saying the U.S. objection instead centered on requirements affecting American streaming companies.
Tariffs, retaliation, and pressure
As the rhetoric hardened, the Associated Press said businesses and consumers were caught in the middle with uncertainty about how much prices may increase, and it quoted Michael Howard II of a furniture business in Warren, Michigan saying tariffs would hamper “the ability for us to put food on the table for our family.”
“the ability for us to put food on the table for our family”
Howard added, “It’s dishonest. And it’s just absolutely not truthful. We need our neighbor, but also they need us,” linking the trade fight to local economic pressure outside Detroit.
The Associated Press reported that Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and three other Cabinet ministers were expected Tuesday morning to share details of support for workers affected by tariffs, while Carney said Canada may need to move away from matching U.S. tariffs dollar for dollar.
Carney said, “An attitude at the negotiation table that Canada is a subsidiary of the United States” is “not something we’re going to accept,” and the Associated Press tied that stance to the broader dispute over what was on the table during negotiations.
In parallel, Fox News reported that Vice President JD Vance traveled to Maine and told a question-and-answer session in Brewer, “And what we’ve said to Canada is stop it,” as he defended the administration’s hard-line approach toward Ottawa.