President Donald Trump took a dig on Thursday at the leader of a Canadian province amid high-stakes trade negotiations that went south the previous day.
Trump ‘renamed’ one of the Great Lakes—Lake Ontario—on a map using a Sharpie, recasting it as “Lake America.”
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In a video posted to the president’s TikTok account on Wednesday night, Trump displayed a printed map of Lake Ontario while sitting in the Oval Office.
“So this is Lake Ontario, in Canada and in the United States,” Trump says in the clip. “But we’re gonna make a little change.
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“We’re gonna call it something different than Lake Ontario. We’re gonna call it Lake America. And all it takes is a good pen and some intelligence,” he teased.
At that, Trump picked up his Sharpie and scrawled “Lake America” on the map after crossing out Lake Ontario.
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“So Lake Ontario, that’s gone. Lake America. So now we have a lake, and now we have a gulf, because we have the Gulf of America,” he said.
“Now we have Lake America, without the ‘of.’ Thank you very much, everybody. Enjoy Lake America,” he added.
Trump’s latest video marks another escalation in his increasingly contentious trade dispute with Canada, which intensified over the weekend after the United States imposed 50% tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Canadian goods.
“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 [sic] much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump said in the post. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The controversy over renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” began Tuesday, when Trump floated the idea publicly in a post on Truth Social.
Trump said the United States was giving “serious consideration” to changing the name because he did not expect the country to be “doing much business with Ontario any longer” amid the escalating trade fight.
The proposal quickly drew attention on both sides of the border, with Canadian officials rejecting the idea and insisting the centuries-old Lake Ontario name would remain in use in Canada.
🚨Just Now: President Trump has released a TikTok video in which he personally renames Lake Ontario to “Lake America” pic.twitter.com/9JlaELgWoS
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@thecalvincooli1) August 27, 2026
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Trump followed through Thursday, signing an executive order directing the Interior Department to formally adopt “Lake America” for U.S. federal government usage. The order does not require Canada to recognize the new designation.
Trump’s second term has been marked by repeated clashes with Canada, straining a relationship between two longtime allies and major trading partners.
The president has repeatedly floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state, rhetoric that has drawn sharp pushback from Canadian political leaders.
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More recently, Trump blamed Canada for wildfire smoke drifting across the border into parts of the United States, accusing the country of failing to properly manage its forests and threatening additional tariffs over the issue.
Trump has also sparred with Canadian officials over the Gordie Howe International Bridge, the major new border crossing connecting Detroit, Michigan, with Windsor, Ontario.
Earlier this year, Trump threatened to block the bridge’s opening while demanding concessions from Canada, including a greater U.S. stake in the project. The bridge ultimately opened to traffic in July.
Tensions flared again around the opening ceremony after Trump announced steep new tariffs on Canadian goods. Canadian officials subsequently canceled plans for a joint U.S.-Canada celebration, opting instead for their own ceremony.
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The disputes over trade, wildfire smoke, the bridge and Trump’s 51st-state rhetoric have combined to produce one of the most contentious periods in U.S.-Canada relations in decades.
Earlier this week, Trump accused the United States’ northern neighbor of “ripping off” our country, declaring, “WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” while presenting his plans for tariffs that Ottawa has vowed to match dollar-for-dollar.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
