President Donald Trump lobbed a new threat in escalating the trade war with Canada.
The 80-year-old president has been trading insults with Ontario's outspoken premier Doug Ford since Prime Minister Mark Carney backed out of trade talks, and Trump threatened to take symbolic control of Lake Ontario in response.
"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 much business with Ontario any longer," Trump posted Tuesday morning on Truth Social. "Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Lake Ontario is a shared international waterway split along the U.S.-Canada border, with New York State and Ontario each governing their own portion of the lakebed and shoreline. Both countries jointly manage resources and environmental protection through the International Joint Commission and Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
Trump pledged Monday to raise the tariff on cars, steel and other goods imported from Canada to 50 percent starting in January, after slapping tariffs of 50 percent on other goods on Saturday after talks between the two nations fell apart.
"Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years," Trump posted Monday morning on Truth Social. "Their ridiculously high tariffs on our Farmers and farm products has made life impossible for these great American Patriots, and has long created a 60 Billion Dollar Deficit between our two Countries. Not sustainable, and NOT ANYMORE!"
Ford responded by threatening to cut off electricity to the U.S., taunting Trump that "he better have a pack of batteries.”
