Donald Trump and Canada continued a verbal duel on Saturday over the US government’s administrative renaming of Lake Ontario, with the Ontario premier erecting a giant sign saying “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” – and the American president posting a video of him tearing down an avatar of that sign, erecting a replacement saying Lake America, and dancing to YMCA.
asserted
him → continue → YMCA
Rhetoric over the naming of Lake Ontario is the public face of an escalating trade dispute between the US and its northern neighbor involving a 50% US tariff on Canadian steel and retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa.
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Rhetoric → escalate → Ottawa
Trump’s order for the US government to refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America by Sunday had at least one prominent impact.
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government → refer → impact
Google Maps had changed Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America for US users to reflect the president’s executive renaming order.
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Maps → change → order
Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney has flat-out rejected the renaming, explaining that Lake Ontario derives from an Indigenous Wendat word meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is great” that dates back more than 400 years.
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that → reject → years
With talks to resolve the trade dispute stalled, Trump issued an executive order on Thursday directing US agencies that the lake was now Lake America.
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lake → resolve → agencies
It revived memories of a dispute earlier in his second presidency with Mexico, which saw Trump direct US agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
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Trump → revive → America
“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America,” Trump told reporters before he signed an executive order renaming the body of water among US federal agencies.
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he → go → agencies
In a statement explaining why it was acquiescing to Trump’s desired name for Lake Ontario, Google said its practice is to “reflect name changes in official government sources”.
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practice → explain → sources
Trump’s order affects the US’s federal Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), “which sets the standard for official US maps”, the tech company said.
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company → affect → maps
Lake Ontario’s name change “does not have any impact on Canadian naming conventions or how the rest of the world refers to the lake”, Google said in a statement.
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Google → have → statement
And it said “those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario’” on Google Maps, “and those outside … the US and Canada will see both names”.
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those → say → names
Google had done similarly in Trump’s executive order for the US government to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
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government → do → America
Google Map users in the US for now see that body of water named as the “Gulf of America”.
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users → see → America
Meanwhile, on Saturday, the US president raised the volume again by resorting to the kind of AI-generated imagery for which he has shown a penchant.
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he → raise → penchant
He posted one such video of an army of Canada geese with Trump-like blond hair firing rifles in protection of Lake America.
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army → post → America
He published another of himself kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with Lake America while he danced in his distinctive way to a soundtrack of the Village People hit YMCA, which he has incorporated into his public appearances for years.
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he → publish → years
Across the US’s northern border, Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, replied with a two-stories-high billboard declaring “Lake Ontario. Now and Always,” near Grimsby, Ontario.
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premier → reply → Grimsby
Ford said Trump was trying to rename the lake because Ontario and Canada were “standing up for ourselves”, and he argued the name would outlast the president.
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name → say → president
“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media.
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Ford → go → media
He appeared on Sunday on the ABC News program This Week and remarked that Trump’s Lake Ontario renaming order was like “something out of Saturday Night Live,’” the famous NBC sketch comedy show.
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order → appear → Live
“No one’s going to call it Lake of America,” Ford said.
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Ford → go → America
It’s going to continue being Lake Ontario.”
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It → go → ?
In an interview with the Associated Press earlier, Ford said the late Ronald Reagan would be “throwing up” over Trump’s tariff policies.
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Reagan → say → policies
Meanwhile, Manitoba’s premier, Wab Kinew, said Trump’s Lake America provocation was akin to an aging rock band trying to revive an old hit.
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band → say → hit
“You know when, like, a rock band is really over the hill and you see them like in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago, I think that’s the part of Donald Trump’s presidency we’re at now,” Kinew said.
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Kinew → know → presidency
“Like he thought he had a real hit, a real golden oldie, with the Gulf of Mexico.
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he → think → Mexico
“He’s trying to bring back that, and he’s trying to play the hits for his base.
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he → try → base
But I think everybody here thinks it’s a little sad, and it’s not his best work.”
Wendat Nation grand chief Pierre Picard called Trump’s move an attempt to erase Indigenous history.
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Picard → think → history
“I want to tell him that it is unacceptable for us, as a nation, to have a president who can eradicate our history, our culture and our identity,” Picard said.
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Picard → want → history
Trump on Sunday afternoon published a social media post declaring “Canada to be the worst”.
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Canada → publish → post
“I don’t want Canadian anything.
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I → want → anything
They’ve been ripping us off for decades, and it’s going to stop,” Trump also wrote, referring to the ongoing US-Canada trade war.
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Trump → rip → war
