The cartographer in chief is at it again.
Calling Canadians “nasty people,” President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday ordering the renaming of Lake Ontario as his frustration grows that a longtime friend he’s turned into an adversary won’t cave to his terms in a trade war.
The gesture doesn’t change much — Trump has no control over how international bodies or other countries refer to the lake, though he can require the US government to refer to it as “Lake America.” The same issue applies to his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America last year.
His move — while apparently designed to punish Canada and show his power — will nevertheless be seen as something of a cover for failure after Ottawa walked away from talks and decided to match his own sharply rising tariffs, arguing that he was trying to encroach on its sovereignty.
“‘Lake of America’ was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Trump said, surrounding by maps of the Great Lakes in the Oval Office. “We have a gulf and we have a lake. 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.”
