President Donald Trump has floated renaming one of the Great Lakes in a petty dig at Canada.
The 80-year-old started his Tuesday morning in cranky fashion, loading up Truth Social at 7 a.m. to tell the world he is still ticked off at our northern neighbors.
And he intends to act on it. “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,” he said, ending with his regular sign-off, “Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Lake Ontario is the smallest and most easterly of the Great Lakes of North America, bounded on the north by Ontario, Canada, and on the south by the state of New York.
The name “Ontario” comes from a Wendat (Huron) word meaning “great lake” or “beautiful water.” European missionaries began recording the name for Lake Ontario in the 1640s, and it gradually became the lake’s established name. The province later took its name from the lake when Ontario became a province of Canada in 1867.
But Trump is ready to rewrite history because of his escalating trade war with Canada. Trump said Monday that tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks and auto parts will double from 25 percent to 50 percent, starting Jan. 1.
That meltdown came after U.S.-Canada trade talks broke down late last week, with both sides accusing the other of making unreasonable last-minute demands.
Trump made his feelings known on Truth Social on Monday. “America has been carrying Canada for decades, but no longer! The U.S.A. will always be far bigger, richer, and stronger than Canada. Without the United States, Canada couldn’t survive,” he claimed.
“Someone should get these clowns to “fall in line” or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE!” he added, referring to Doug Ford, the Premier of the Canadian Province of Ontario, and Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, whom Trump mockingly called the “governor.”
That meltdown was likely spurred by an interview Ford gave to the Associated Press on Monday, in which he criticized Trump and threatened to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the United States. His province supplies electricity to 1.5 million American households and businesses.
He also said that former Republican President Ronald Reagan would be “throwing up” over Trump’s trade policies.
Referring to a portrait Trump has of the 40th president near his Oval Office desk, Ford added, “If he knew what was going on, he’d throw up on that painting, and he’d be rolling in his grave right now.”
“He should maybe take that picture off the wall and move it somewhere else,” Ford continued. “Because right now, Ronald Reagan would be disgusted with President Trump.”
Ford knows this is a sore spot. Last year, Ontario funded U.S. television ads featuring excerpts from a 1987 speech by Reagan warning that import tariffs can provoke retaliation and trade wars.
Trump accused Ontario of misrepresenting Reagan and abruptly broke off trade talks with Canada. Ontario Premier Doug Ford later agreed to pause the ad campaign to get negotiations back on track.
On Monday, Carney suggested that the Trump administration had threatened “French language and culture” during negotiations.
Trump referenced this in a second Truth Social post on Tuesday morning. “I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing. This lie was made up by a weak and ineffective Prime Minister in an attempt to gain political support, which he has totally lost, from the people of Quebec. I love French Canadians!” he ranted.
Canada has rules designed to protect French alongside English, and those rules can make it more expensive or complicated for American companies to sell things in Canada. Carney said Canada “could not accept” a U.S. proposal that infringed on these rights.
Trump, in one of the first acts of his second term, signed an executive order directing federal agencies to officially rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” causing tension with our southern neighbors.
