Trump: 'People Thought I Was Kidding' About Lake America

For those skeptics who responded with chortles when President Trump on Tuesday floated the idea of renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, well, the commander in chief suggests he wasn't joking. His follow-up comments came Wednesday on Glenn Beck's radio show, reports USA Today:

• "You saw the Lake Ontario thing. People thought I was kidding, maybe I wasn't," Trump said. "Because the last one you saw was the Gulf of Mexico is Gulf of America. Now, we have a gulf and we have a lake. It's very simple."

Trump's comments came as he defended 50% tariffs on many Canadian imports after trade talks collapsed, with Ottawa responding with its own steep duties. Trump accused Canada of treating the US like "a state," claiming it harms American farmers and automakers and warning, "It's time to teach Canada you can't do this anymore." Any actual name change, however, would require action by the US Board on Geographic Names, which was founded in 1890 to oversee such decisions and ensure consistency, notes the Hill.