Donald Trump appears to be running short on leverage in his escalating trade fight with Canada.
So he’s reaching for the next best thing: renaming a giant lake.
Trump launched a furious series of posts about Canada Tuesday after Prime Minister Mark Carney refused to cave to his demands in an increasingly ugly trade war. Trump apparently expected Canada to capitulate. Instead, Ottawa fired back with its own tariffs on U.S. goods. Now, Trump appears to be having a meltdown.
“Canada has been ‘Ripping Off’ the U.S.A. for decades,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, claiming that Canada had been charging American farmers tariffs of “400%” and had driven “many wonderful U.S. companies out of business.”
Those claims are disputed by the available trade data, but Trump wasn’t finished.
His frustration appears to stem from Carney’s refusal to accept a trade agreement that would compromise Canada’s French-language protections.
Trump insisted Monday that he would “never interfere with Canadians speaking French!” before immediately returning to his complaints about how “difficult and unreasonable” Canada has supposedly become.
“For 10 years they wouldn’t certify Gulfstream Jets, until I got involved,” Trump wrote. “They wanted 100% of the market for Gulfstream’s Canadian competitor.”
He then delivered his latest assessment of America’s northern neighbor.
“I deal with many countries, and Canada is easily the most difficult and unreasonable,” Trump wrote. “They feel entitled, but they are not a State, and will be entitled no longer!”
Twenty minutes later, Trump was back at it.
“Over the last 10 years, the United States lost, on average, 60 Billion Dollars a year with Canada,” he claimed. “No more!”
Then came perhaps the most bizarre threat of the day.
Trump threatened to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
Because apparently when a trade negotiation isn’t going your way, the logical response is to rename geographical features.
And Canada wasn’t exactly backing down.
On Tuesday, Ottawa announced $20 billion in retaliatory tariffs on American goods, escalating the trade fight Trump started.
The new Canadian measures target hundreds of U.S. products, including everything from food and clothing to appliances, smartphones and steel.
So Trump’s attempt to pressure Canada into submission has produced an interesting result: Canada is hitting back.
Carney has made clear that Ottawa isn’t interested in accepting a deal simply because Trump demands one. And with both sides now imposing increasingly aggressive tariffs, the dispute is becoming less like a negotiation and more like an economic staring contest.
Trump may have wanted Canada to bend the knee.
Instead, Ottawa appears to have planted its feet.
And somewhere along the way, Lake Ontario apparently became collateral damage.
The art of the deal!
