Trump Renames Lake Ontario as Lake America, Stoking Canada Spat

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump announced he was moving to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, escalating his clash with Canada after trade negotiations between the two nations collapsed.

Trump on Thursday signed a directive changing the name of the lake and said the move would take place "effective immediately." The president previewed the move in a social media post earlier this week.

"Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade," Trump told reporters when asked what message he was sending to the US's northern neighbor. "They want to be treated like they're a state, and so we just can't do that anymore."

Lake Ontario is one of the Great Lakes and straddles the US-Canada border between the state of New York and the province of Ontario. Canada is virtually certain to reject Trump's unilateral move to rename the body of water.

Trump last year renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, another jab at a US neighbor and major trading partner.