Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, escalating Canada feud

President Donald Trump ordered Lake Ontario to be renamed Lake America, the latest broadside in his escalating feud with Canada.

In the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump signed an order requiring that the U.S. Interior Department update geographic information systems to change the name of the lake, located between New York and Canada. Canadian government officials playing hardball on trade, he said, are "nasty people."

"We filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else," Trump said. "We notified all the various people that we have to notify. So we've done everything that you have to do. And this is official, effective immediately."

Trump said he made the change, which follows his order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America last year, because "Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly."

"The Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They're nasty people," he continued, calling the country the worst in the world to deal with on trade.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded, noting the Indigenous Iroquoian origin of the 400-year-old name Ontario, "which, appropriately, means 'the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,'" Carney wrote on social media.

"We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms," Carney continued. "Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario - then, now and always."

On Tuesday, after Trump floated the idea of changing the lake's name, Canada's minister of industry, Melanie Joly, referred to his remarks as "shenanigans."

This month, Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods, including whisky, dairy products, toys, clothing and hockey sticks. After trade talks with Washington collapsed, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney promised that Canada would retaliate "dollar for dollar."

On Tuesday Carney did just that, announcing new tariffs of up to 50 percent on hundreds of American goods. The new tariffs are due to take effect Sept. 8. Trump's latest provocation casts doubt on the likelihood of the two countries working out a deal ahead of that date.

Trump aides have repeatedly expressed frustration that Canada has been the only nation besides China to retaliate against Trump's tariffs.

While Trump can change the lake's name for U.S. government purposes, states and private companies - including those responsible for consumer maps - can decide whether to follow suit.

"New York won't be calling it that," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, wrote on social media in response to a White House post touting the new Lake America name.

On Wednesday, Hochul told reporters at the New York State Fair that it was "absurd" Trump was considering changing the name, explaining she had just spoken to a farmer worried about not being able to export apples to Canada.

Soon after Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico name change, Google Maps announced that users in the United States would see the body of water's name rendered as the Gulf of America while users in Mexico would still see it rendered the Gulf of Mexico. In the rest of the world, people see both: "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)."

That name change also set off a legal fight between the White House and the Associated Press, which announced it would continue to use the term Gulf of Mexico in coverage. The White House then banned the wire service's reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One, prompting the AP to file suit.

Riley Beggin contributed to this report.