Trump: The U.S. may rename Lake Ontario as Lake America

U.S. President Donald Trump said that Lake Ontario could be renamed Lake America.

"The U.S. is seriously considering renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, since we do not expect to conduct any further business with Ontario," he wrote on Truth Social. Ontario — one of the North American Great Lakes — is located on the border between the United States and Canada.

Earlier, the American leader called members of Canada's leadership clowns and threatened them with a serious deterioration in relations between Washington and Ottawa. Commenting on critical remarks by the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, Douglas Ford, directed at the U.S. administration and prompted by a sharp escalation of disagreements in bilateral trade, Trump asserted that "the U.S. will always be much bigger, richer and stronger than Canada."

U.S. trade negotiator Jamieson Greer said last week that Ottawa had rejected a bilateral trade deal that Washington considered advantageous. In connection with this, American 50 percent import duties on certain categories of Canadian goods took effect on August 22. For his part, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that he had decided to suspend trade negotiations with the United States. He noted that Ottawa would impose retaliatory tariffs. They are planned to take effect on September 8. At the same time, Carney stressed that a "trade war" had begun between the United States and Canada. He expressed the opinion that it had been initiated by Washington.

Trump then announced that starting January 1, 2027, the United States plans to impose 50 percent duties on Canadian cars, auto parts and steel. From the point of view of the master of the White House, Canada "has been fleecing the U.S. for years," taking advantage of the special relationship and effectively of trade preferences. However, the United States will no longer tolerate this, the American president warned.