President Donald Trump has taken his bizarre feud with Canada to its predictable next step: an AI-generated fantasy in which he physically renames Lake Ontario.
In a video posted to Truth Social on Saturday, Trump strolls up to a “Welcome to Lake Ontario” sign, kicks it over, replaces it with a “Welcome to Lake America” sign topped with an American flag, then breaks into his signature dance.
The over-the-top Trump post followed another from earlier in the day featuring an army of geese in Trump wigs letting loose a fusillade of gunfire from rifles, in a bizarre fantasy that appeared to hint at military conflict.
Trump’s executive order renaming the lake—which is located in both the U.S. and Canada—and his AI slop about it come amid a damaging trade war he launched against one of America’s closest allies.
Trump’s steep tariffs on Canadian goods and the country’s retaliatory tariffs will not only hurt Canada. American consumers will also be forced to pay more for products, and so will U.S. businesses that rely on Canadian parts.
In the midst of the mess, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is fiercely defending the lake’s name. “Canadian women and men… know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario—today and forever,” he declared in a statement.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Saturday unveiled a lakeside sign declaring: “Lake Ontario Now and Always,” in French and English.
“You may have heard that President Trump is trying to rename this lake, all because he doesn’t like Ontario and Canada standing up for ourselves,” Ford said. “But let’s be serious. Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario, and long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario.”
Carney emphasized that local native peoples named the lake over 400 years ago, before either Canada or the United States existed. “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,’” he wrote on X. “The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.”
Native American leaders have also condemned the lake renaming, calling Trump’s arbitrary action an arrogant eradication of an important part of Indigenous culture and history, and a breach of treaties, including one signed regarding the Great Lakes by George Washington.
Trump has said he might next rename an ocean of his choosing.
