The White House apparently wanted to troll Canada with a new map showing “Lake America.” Instead, it gave the internet something else to laugh about.
The Trump administration shared a Lego-inspired map of the United States on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said his administration was giving “serious consideration” to renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
There was just one little problem. The White House couldn’t even put Washington, D.C., in the right place.
The map, which labeled all 50 states and plastered “LAKE AMERICA” across the Great Lakes, showed Washington, D.C., sitting inside North Carolina, roughly 200 miles south of where the nation’s capital actually is, between Maryland and Virginia.
And, naturally, the internet noticed.
“You guys can’t even put DC in the right place on the map,” one commenter wrote.
Another offered a geography lesson with a sarcastic twist: “Ah yes DC in lovely North Carolina.”
The post racked up more than 2 million views, giving the White House’s attempted jab at Canada a rather unexpected ending.
The administration wanted people talking about Lake America. They ended up talking about its map.
Trump’s fixation on renaming Lake Ontario comes as relations between the United States and Canada have deteriorated dramatically.
On Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. government was giving “serious consideration” to renaming the Great Lake, while adding that the United States did not expect to be doing “much business with Ontario any longer.”
The threat came after weeks of escalating tensions between Washington and Ottawa, including a series of punishing tariffs and increasingly personal attacks between Trump and Canadian officials.
Trump has repeatedly claimed Canada has taken advantage of the United States and has even floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state.
Canadian officials, unsurprisingly, haven’t exactly embraced the proposal.
On Saturday, the United States imposed a 50 percent tariff on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, including products such as wine, plywood and hockey sticks, after trade negotiations broke down.
Trump later threatened additional tariffs on Canadian automobiles and auto parts beginning in January.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded with retaliatory tariffs of up to 50 percent on hundreds of American products.
So Trump got a trade war. Canada got tariffs. And now Lake Ontario apparently needs a new name.
Canada isn’t exactly bending the knee
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also shown little interest in playing along.
After Trump called Ford a “flunky” and told him to “fall in line,” Ford fired back.
“I don’t respond to a dictator like President Trump, a bully like President Trump,” Ford told reporters.
Then he delivered the punchline.
“I’m not gonna take any advice off a guy that’s the king of bankruptcies.”
Ford also told Trump to “kiss my a**.”
Diplomacy, 2026 edition.
The increasingly nasty feud comes between two countries that have long been among each other’s biggest trading partners and closest allies.
But Trump’s tariffs, repeated threats and push to absorb Canada as the 51st state have badly strained that relationship.
Recent polling suggests many Canadians have grown substantially more negative toward the United States, with some boycotting American products and canceling trips south of the border.
And then there’s the map
Trump has developed something of a fascination with renaming major bodies of water.
Last year, his administration moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
Now Lake Ontario is apparently next.
But before the White House can convince anyone that Lake Ontario should be called Lake America, it might want to work on a slightly more basic geographical challenge: Finding Washington, D.C.
Because if you’re going to redraw the map, it probably helps to know where the capital is.
