Donald Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' on US maps and documents is a pathetic maneuver designed to distract from his failings and antagonize Canada, according to Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi.
The order, signed on Thursday, directs federal agencies to use the new name on official records. Mahdawi notes this follows the president's earlier rebranding of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America last year. 'We have a gulf and we have a lake – now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific,' Trump told reporters.
A middle finger to Canada
Mahdawi argues the name change is intended as a 'middle finger to Canada' amid collapsed trade negotiations. The Trump administration has imposed a 50% tariff on some goods, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised a 'dollar for dollar' response.
Carney pointed out on social media that the name Lake Ontario has been used for more than 400 years and comes from the Indigenous Wendat/Huron word Ontari'io, meaning 'The lake is beautiful, the lake is big.' It predates both the Confederation of Canada and the US Declaration of Independence.
Desperation and isolation
Mahdawi writes that the stunt demonstrates how 'desperate, isolated and out of ideas' Trump is. His approval ratings have hit a new low, sliding 14 points from 47% at the start of his second term to 33% now amid rising costs. The Iran war, sold as a 'little excursion' that would last a few weeks, has hit the six-month mark.
A 36-country Pew survey found overall ratings for the US are largely negative; only seven countries rate the US positively, with Israel at the top. Mahdawi concludes that people will be calling Lake Ontario by its original name 'long after we can all stop calling Trump president.'
