The White House released a map labeling Lake Ontario as “Lake America” — but that wasn’t the only geographical detail it got wrong. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. government was giving “serious consideration” to renaming the Great Lake “Lake America,” adding that “we don’t expect to [be] doing much business with Ontario any longer.” The announcement capped a tumultuous week in U.S.-Canada relations, marked by the imposition of steep tariffs and a bitter exchange of words between Trump and Canadian officials. Hours after Trump’s post, the White House followed up by posting a Lego-inspired map of the United States with “LAKE AMERICA” emblazoned above the Great Lakes, which all sit near the border with Canada.
But the map, which labeled all 50 states, also contained an embarrassing error: it placed Washington, D.C., in North Carolina — roughly 200 miles south of its actual location, between Virginia and Maryland. Commenters on the post, which garnered over 2 million views, were quick to pounce on the mistake. This page is such an embarrassment,” one user wrote, while another chimed in: “Ah yes DC in lovely North Carolina.” The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
The administration’s fixation on rebranding Lake Ontario comes as tensions with Ontario’s leadership — and the Canadian government more broadly — have reached a boiling point. On Saturday, the U.S. imposed a 50 percent tariff on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods — including wine, plywood and hockey sticks —after last-minute negotiations broke down. Trump later threatened yet another round of tariffs, set to take effect in January, on Canadian cars and auto parts.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who likened the steep levies to an act of war, responded by imposing retaliatory tariffs of up to 50 percent on hundreds of U.S. goods. Ontario Premier Doug Ford waded into the diplomatic dispute Monday, responding to a Truth Social post in which Trump labeled him a blustering “flunky” and told him to “fall in line.” “I don't respond to a dictator like President Trump, a bully like President Trump,” Ford told reporters when asked about the post. Trump has previously shown an interest in rebranding major geographical features, including renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America last year.
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