Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday hit back after President Donald Trump signed an order directing the federal government to start calling New York’s Lake Ontario “Lake America” in a swipe at the U.S.’s northern neighbor and ally. After Trump purported to rename one of the Great Lakes as “Lake America” in a brief Oval Office appearance — sparking broad ridicule — Carney responded on X, writing that the name of the lake had nothing to do with the Canadian province of Ontario — and actually predated the formation of Canada itself. He explained that the name “dates back more than 400 years, well before the Canadian Confederation and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.” “We know that the United States is changing.
Their trade relations, their foreign policy, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” Carney continued. Trump has the power to force federal agencies to acknowledge the name, however. That means maps produced by agencies like the NOAA, the U.S.
Geological Survey, or the Army Corps of Engineers will have to adhere to the “Lake America” name, just as they had to adhere to Trump’s decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” The move, intended as an appeasement to a flagging MAGA political base that has grown increasingly disenchanted with his presidency and his administration’s failure to address the cost of living concerns that drove them to vote for him nearly two years ago, comes as Trump continues to antagonize traditional American allies for no apparent reason other than his own deeply-ingrained belief that the country has somehow been disrespected by allies who act as sovereign states rather than vassals. It also comes amid a brewing trade war between the U.S. and Canada. On August 24, Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on Canadian steel, auto parts, and vehicles.
The U.S. and Canada met to negotiate a trade deal, but those talks broke down after which Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a “dollar for dollar” tariff on approximately 900 American-made goods. Speaking in the Oval Office as he signed the Lake America order, Trump suggested that the decision was in part motivated by displeasure over what he described as Ottawa’s failure to pay the United States mob-style “protection” money for the privilege of existing under the American military umbrella. They don't pay us to defend Canada, but we defend Canada, and they understand that.
As an example, we bought icebreakers. We have 11 brand new icebreakers coming in, they'd like to use the icebreakers. They don't pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they're not a state,” he said.
He added that the “whole Canadian thing” has been “going on for decades” and “has to stop” while offering up the example of automobile manufacturing as something that he believes should be entirely re-shored to the U.S. Asked why he was antagonizing one of America’s traditional allies even as he continues to cozy up to dictators in China and North Korea, Trump lashed out at leaders in Ottawa for pushing back against his trade warwith retaliatory tariffs that they levied in response to the ones he ordered after trade talks broke down last week. Trump then suggested that Canada was “the worst to deal with on trade” despite the country’s long relationship with the U.S. and the trade agreement his administration negotiated during his first term.
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