Trump considers changing Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ as trade disputes with Canada escalate

Photo by Tom Rivers: Lake Ontario is shown near sunset in this photo from Aug. 6 at the shore near the Oak Orchard State Marine Park.

President Donald Trump today posted on social media that the United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” because the US doesn’t “expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer.”

Canada pulled out of trade talks with the U.S. over the weekend. Trump has announced 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods and Canada is expected to announce retaliatory tariffs today.

The U.S. has changed the long-standing name of a body of water before. Trump last year announced an executive order that gave the Gulf of Mexico a new name, the Gulf of America.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, criticized Trump’s tactics with Canada, saying he is needlessly driving up costs for Americans.

“Let’s be clear: these latest tariffs against Canada directly hit Americans,” she said in a news release. “They will only increase costs on New York families and hurt our state’s small businesses. Trump needs to stop the political games, go back to the negotiation table, and get a deal done that lowers costs and strengthens our economy instead of harming it.”