The Ontario Premier Threatened to Impose Tariffs on Electricity Exports and Cut Off Essential Minerals Supplies to the United States

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States is "seriously considering" renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America, a move he announced on his Truth Social platform. "The United States is seriously considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America because we don't expect to do much more business with Ontario, the Republican posted. This is not the first time Trump has proposed geographic or institutional name changes.

He has previously called for renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America, Mount Denali to Mount McKinley, and the Department of Defense (the Pentagon) to the Department of War. Trump's Tuesday post came after the trade dispute between Canada and the U.S., triggered by tariffs Washington imposed on its ally, escalated Monday into an open war of words between the American president and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a former supporter of his. Ford started the hostilities when, in a radio interview, he suggested to Trump where he could kiss him, after the U.S. president announced that tariffs on Canadian cars, auto parts, and steel would rise to 50% starting in January 2027. The leader of Ontario, where much of Canada's auto industry is concentrated, also called for using "all available tools" against Washington, including possibly restricting electricity and critical minerals sales to the U.S. Trump responded on social media, calling Ford a "lackey" of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Ford, leader of the Ontario Conservative Party, quickly fired back, calling Trump a "dictator, "tyrant, "king of bankruptcies, and a "loser. "I've dealt with guys like you all my life and you know what? They all end up losing, because you're a loser, Ford told Trump in front of cameras.

The Ontario premier threatened to impose tariffs on electricity exports and cut off essential minerals supplies to the United States. The relationship between Trump and Ford, whose policies have been described as populist by the country's political commentators, has not always been hostile. In November 2016, shortly after Trump won his first term as U.S. president, Ford said he would have voted for the Republican, despite his derogatory comments about women and Mexicans.

Three years later, in 2019, Ford again declared his support for Trump: God bless the president and don't be mistaken. I'm a big Republican, I'm a supporter of his, with a conservative mindset. However, Trump's protectionist policies led Ford to harden his stance against the Republican leader in 2020, when Washington imposed tariffs on Canadian aluminum exports.

The final break came in October 2025, when Ford decided to use fragments of a speech by former President Ronald Reagan in U.S. television ads to attack Trump's tariffs. The U.S. president responded by suspending trade negotiations with Canada and subsequently raising tariffs on the neighboring country. Digi24.ro also reported that the story is available on Google News.