President Trump signed an order yesterday renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America.
Watch the signing: [VIDEO]
This is the same play as January 20, 2025, when he renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
A lot of people lost their minds over that one. I shrugged. The water did not move. Mexico did not agree. What changed was the name on U.S. federal maps.
Same limits here. The order tells the Dept. of Interior and the Board on Geographic Names to update the U.S. geographic names database within 30 days. Federal maps and documents are supposed to say Lake America. Canada does not have to. New York does not have to.
Text of August 27 executive order renaming Lake Ontario.
On paper, the reason is heritage. The order says the deepest water and most of the volume sit on the American side, that the United States spends the most protecting the Great Lakes, and that this follows the same “names that honor American greatness” policy as the Gulf.
What put the pen in his hand this week was the trade fight.
Talks with Canada collapsed last week. Washington put 50 percent tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods. Ottawa answered with counter-tariffs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford told Trump he could “kiss my ass.” Trump called him “Flunky Ford,” then posted that the United States was considering the rename “in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer.”
Yesterday he followed through.
The written reason is volume, investment, and American history. The timing is a tariff war that turned personal, aimed at the one Great Lake that shares its name with a Canadian province.
The lake is the same. The argument is about who gets to name it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are now moderated because one random commenter chose to get comment happy. What doesn't get published is up to my discretion. Of course moderating policy is subject to change. Thanks!