Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America

As he signed the order on Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump said it wasn’t a direct message to Canada, but that America’s northern neighbour “has been ripping us off for a long time on trade”.

Still, it comes amid the trade dispute that has seen US-Canada relations fall to new lows. The Trump administration and Canadian officials have traded insults over the past week.

There was a hint on Thursday that there was room for a return to the negotiating table sometime in the future.

US-Canada trade minister, Dominic LeBlanc, said in a post on X that the US had withdrawn some of its demands around labelling requirements in French “and is confirming that measures to promote French language and Canadian culture will not be subject to future US trade actions”.

“We look forward to further constructive US clarifications on their other positions which would create the possibility of a mutually beneficial trade agreement that respects Canadian sovereignty.”.

Trade talks collapsed at the last minute late on Friday night, with both sides accusing the other of demanding last-minute changes to a tentative deal.

Trump said he’d been thinking about renaming the lake “for a long time”.

“So if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake,” Trump said.

“Now, all we need is an ocean. So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

The names of four of the Great Lakes – Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie – originate from indigenous words. Lake Superior was named after an anglicised French word.