US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America," as reported by infohub.kz.
When asked by journalists what signal he wanted to send to Canada with the renaming, Trump replied: "None."
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, located on the border between Canada and the United States. It is the easternmost and smallest of the Great Lakes by area, covering approximately 19,000 square kilometers, with an average depth of 86 meters and a maximum depth of about 244 meters. The lake shares its name with the most populous and economically developed province in central Canada.
As foreign media report, since the lake is divided by the international border (the northern shore belongs to Canada, while the southern shore belongs to New York State), the legal force of Trump's executive order extends only to US territory and official documents.
The move comes amid a sharp escalation in the trade conflict and the breakdown of tariff negotiations between Washington and Ottawa.
Earlier, Trump stated on his Truth Social platform that the US does not plan to continue actively doing business with the Canadian province of Ontario, and therefore the name should be changed.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed strong disagreement with the decision. He emphasized that the lake was named by the Huron Indians over 400 years ago, and for Canadians it will "forever remain Ontario."
Previously, as part of his tariff and foreign policy, Trump had ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be called the "Gulf of America."
Earlier, Kursiv reported that Trump harshly criticized Canada's leadership, calling Canadian politicians "clowns," and threatened the country with a serious deterioration in economic relations.