Ontario Premier Doug Ford hit back at Donald Trump again on Sunday but seemed to regret the personal nature of their dispute after the two traded insults over Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario. Ford appeared on ABC’s This Week after getting into a war of words with the president coinciding with the larger trade war erupting between the U.S. and its northern neighbor, Canada. The U.S. and Canada levied tariffs as high as 50 percent on various imports this month after trade talks collapsed.
And while Ford backed away from the personal jabs he’d aimed at Trump at a press conference this past week, the premier reiterated that he thought that Trump’s move to direct the federal government to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America” was “absolutely backwards”. Ford had referred to Trump as a “loser,” a “dictator” and a “bully” in his comments to reporters. "It was something out of Saturday Night Live when he signed documents saying 'change it to Lake America.' No one is going to call it Lake America.” Of the tenor of the debate, he added: “It's unfortunate that he stoops down to that level, and unfortunately, I did that day.” Ford’s comments come after Trump held a signing ceremony on Thursday to publicize a new executive order making the name change an official U.S. government policy.
Private organizations are under no obligation to adhere to the name change, but Google Maps has already announced that it will feature the name change in maps presented to U.S. customers. At the signing ceremony, Trump hinted that he could even attempt to rename one or more of the world’s oceans next. The event was cheered on by some of the president’s various allies who have supported his efforts to tighten the screws on Canada in an attempt to secure a more favorable trade agreement, but even some Republicans admitted openly that the president’s actions seem like a distraction in the face of a growing trade war and the conflict with Iran, which hit its sixth-month mark on Friday.
Canadian officials of all political stripes roundly denounced Trump’s move as a provocation, and said they would not recognize the change. Apart from the obvious issues that attempting to rename Lake Ontario raises, some of the president’s supporters have found even more creative reasons to oppose the change. On Fox News, former congressman Trey Gowdy warned that the new acronym spelled out by the names of the Great Lakes would shift from “HOMES” to “HAMES”, which he warned was dangerously close to Hamas — the Palestinian militant group in charge of Gaza, designated as a terrorist group.
U.S. and Canadian officials have said that trade talks fell apart at the last minute over a dispute surrounding tariffs on trucks manufactured in Canada, including in Ontario. In the days since the talks collapsed, both sides have levied new tariffs on a range of goods including steel, aluminum, lumber and dairy products. Canadian officials have warned that they are willing to wait out the entirety of Trump’s presidency rather than capitulate to the White House’s demands.
"You're at war when you get attacked. We got attacked," Prime Minister Mark Carney said. U.S. officials have warned that further retaliation from Canada would provoke a response from Trump.
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