Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America amid Canada trade war – US politics live | US politics– www.theguardian.com
News Source
EXCERPT:
Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’
Donald Trump summoned the press pool to the Oval Office to witness him signing an executive order that directs the Department of the Interior to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”.
This comes after trade talks between Canada collapsed over the weekend and led to a fray of tariffs between Washington and Ottawa.
Trump claimed the name change was something “I’ve been thinking about for a long time”.
“Canada treats us very badly,” the president said. “People oftentimes they’ll ask me who’s the worst to deal with on trade, and I said that’s easy. Canada, they are the worst, and they feel entitled, and just we can’t have that.”
A 50% tariff on several Canadian imports kicked in on Saturday, with Trump threatening another round of 50% duties on Canadian steel, trucks, cars and auto parts to take effect in the new year. Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, hit back with 25-50% tariffs on hundreds of US goods.
This, of course, is not the first time the president has made renaming a body of water a priority. At the beginning of his second term in office he issued an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.
Trump appeared to joke that there could be more to come: “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. Maybe we’ll change them both.”
Key events
New York congressman denounces Trump’s Lake Ontario rebranding stunt
Among those deeply unimpressed by Donald Trump’s stunt to direct federal agencies to refer to Lake Ontario and Lake America is Tim Kennedy, a Democratic congressman who represents a western New York district that borders Ontario and co-chairs the bipartisan House Northern Border Caucus on US-Canada affairs.
Kennedy said in a statement on Thursday:
If Donald Trump spent half as much time trying to make life more affordable as he does trying to rename bodies of water, working families might actually be able to afford their rent, utility bills, and food costs. His pathetic proposal to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” proves what we already know him to be: a petty, vindictive, failed president.
By declaring economic war on Canada, our strongest ally and New York’s largest trading partner, President Trump is waging that same war on border communities like Western New York, and we have been paying the price. Canadian tourism to New York is down 26 percent and Canadian spending is down 28 percent.
After picking fights with our allies and losing illegal wars of choice with our adversaries, President Trump is cementing his place as the worst president in the history of our country.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
-
Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”. This comes as the trade war between the US and Canada escalated in recent days, and has seen both countries levy tariffs on hundreds of each other’s imports. The renaming of bodies of geographic features to spite neighbors and exert national pride is a familiar play for Trump, who issued a similar order rebranding the Gulf of Mexico as “the Gulf of America” at the start of his second term.
-
Trump also told reporters that he’s had “good talks” with Russian president Vladimir Putin, and insisted that “he’s not going to be attacking a Nato territory”. This comes after speculation continues to circulate around CIA director John Ratcliffe’s covert visit to Moscow this week, and reports that have emerged that say the spy chief’s trip was expressly to convince Putin to not take action against Nato allies.
-
Documents obtained by the Guardian and interviews with military leadership show the war in Iran has depleted the US Navy’s budget. Consequently, the service branch has had to reallocate money intended for its payroll and from other reserves to fund combat operations. The financial strain comes after the protracted war has depleted US weapons stockpiles and led to counterattacks on bases throughout the region.
-
House Democrats have launched an investigation into Donald Trump Jr’s venture capital firm, 1798 Capital. The president’s son serves as a partner for the firm, and now Democrats on the judiciary committee are asking the company’s founders to turn over records to detail the firm’s “miraculous” recent success. But Democrats likely have little authority to enforce that request while they remain a minority in Congress. More here
-
Karoline Leavitt departs from her role as the White House press secretary. President Trump’s outgoing press secretary, who had been a key mouthpiece for the administration since the start of Trump’s second term, addressed reporters for perhaps the last time earlier today. Leavitt described the parting as “bittersweet” and told the press pool that she would “miss you guys.”
-
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr appears to have lied during congressional hearings last year. Newly obtained documents show that Kennedy lied to lawmakers last year about the intent of his 2019 visit to Samoa. In the hearings, ahead of his confirmation as the nation’s top health official, Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine crusader, told lawmakers that his trip to the island had “nothing to do with vaccines”. But the newly uncovered documents undermine that testimony, including one in which Kennedy told the Samoan prime minister that he wanted to study vaccination on the island. Kennedy’s visit came months ahead of a measles outbreak on the island that killed more than 80 people.
Donald Trump has left Washington for Houston, Texas to attend a Republican National Committee (RNC) fundraiser and campaign on behalf of attorney general Ken Paxton, who is vying to win the US Senate seat in the state.
Canada drops US seafood from sweeping tariff list
While the US and Canada continue to escalate a tit-for-tat trade war, Canadian officials have opted to back down from tariffs on a particular American export: seafood.
In a social media post on Thursday, Canada’s Department of Finance said it would remove seafood and fish products from a slate of counter-tariffs prepared against the United States. Canadian officials said the move was intended to “protect against broader economic harms”, even as the nation retaliates against the new US duties.
After a tentative deal between the two nations fell apart last week, US tariffs against Canada took effect, and Canadian authorities responded in kind.
Susan Collins, a Republican Senator from Maine facing a competitive re-election race this year, said in a social media post that she was grateful to the Canadians for pulling back from seafood tariffs. If imposed, she said, such a measure would have been devastating to her state’s lobster industry.
“I urge the US to respond to this show of good faith from our Canadian friends by returning to the negotiating table and working to amicably resolve this trade dispute,” Collins wrote.
Chuck Edwards, the North Carolina Republican facing a censure vote in Congress over allegations that he sexually harassed a pair of staffers, has issued a letter urging his colleagues to reject the disciplinary measure.
A report early this month by the House ethics committee recommended Edwards’ censure on the grounds that he’d engaged in inappropriate conduct toward a pair of young female staffers. That conduct, according to the committee, included sending lavish gifts and affectionate notes to the women, as well as inviting them to “intimate dinners and vacations”.
Edwards, in a letter dated earlier this week, said the committee –which argued the congressman’s actions made the women feel uncomfortable and pressured – overstepped in equating his conduct to misconduct or sexual harassment.
“An affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition,” Edwards wrote. “A gift is not sexual misconduct. A compliment is not sexual misconduct. Poetry is not sexual misconduct. Socializing with a colleague is not sexual misconduct. Caring deeply about someone with whom you have worked and come to know for years is not sexual misconduct.”
In light of the committee’s findings, Edwards abandoned his campaign for reelection earlier this month. North Carolina Republicans selected Jennifer Balkcom, a member of the state’s House of Representatives, as the party’s replacement nominee for the general election.
Trump insists that Putin will ‘not be attacking a Nato territory’ as speculation circulates after CIA director’s visit to Moscow
Donald Trump told reporters today that he’s had “good talks” with Russian president Vladimir Putin, and insisted that “he’s not going to be attacking a Nato territory”.
This comes after speculation continues to circulate around CIA director John Ratcliffe’s covert visit to Moscow this week, and reports that have emerged that say the spy chief’s trip was expressly to convince Putin to not take action against Nato allies.
Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’
Donald Trump summoned the press pool to the Oval Office to witness him signing an executive order that directs the Department of the Interior to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”.
This comes after trade talks between Canada collapsed over the weekend and led to a fray of tariffs between Washington and Ottawa.
Trump claimed the name change was something “I’ve been thinking about for a long time”.
“Canada treats us very badly,” the president said. “People oftentimes they’ll ask me who’s the worst to deal with on trade, and I said that’s easy. Canada, they are the worst, and they feel entitled, and just we can’t have that.”
A 50% tariff on several Canadian imports kicked in on Saturday, with Trump threatening another round of 50% duties on Canadian steel, trucks, cars and auto parts to take effect in the new year. Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, hit back with 25-50% tariffs on hundreds of US goods.
This, of course, is not the first time the president has made renaming a body of water a priority. At the beginning of his second term in office he issued an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.
Trump appeared to joke that there could be more to come: “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. Maybe we’ll change them both.”
Trump administration officials are seeking to radically accelerate the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Haitians who were previously living in the US under the aegis of a humanitarian program, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
The Times reports that the administration is seeking to start deportation flights to Haiti weekly – as opposed to its previous pace of once a month. If put into effect, that could increase the number of Haitians flown out of the country by hundreds of people per month.
The Trump administration has deemed the island nation safe enough for those who fled it to return, even as the country remains mired in anarchy and gang conflict. The violence there has led the administration to reroute deportation flights away from the embattled Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, to a smaller city 120 miles away.
The more than 300,000 Haitians slated for removal from the country were previously allowed to work and reside in the US under Temporary Protected Status. But President Trump has taken aim at their inclusion in that program since early in his second term, and was able to terminate it for Haitians after a June supreme court ruling cleared the administration’s path.
Trump’s war on Iran is rapidly draining US navy budget, documents and interviews reveal
Aram Roston
Donald Trump’s war on Iran has driven the US military into a severe financial crisis, with the US navy forced to transfer money from its payroll and other sources to cover the costs of combat, according to documents obtained by the Guardian, and interviews with navy officials, contractors and defense analysts.
The US-Israeli operation, which has depleted US munitions stockpiles and prompted retaliatory Iranian strikes that have wrecked strategic bases across the Middle East, is piling pressure on budgets across the military.
One Pentagon memo about navy funding seen by the Guardian warns that there are “shortfalls in payroll” accounts due to the department “raiding” them to fund combat operations.
Experts and former officials say the accounts are running dry. “The piggy bank is broken,” said Harlan Ullman, a retired naval officer. Ullman is a member of the National Commission for the Future of the Navy but he said he is not speaking on the commission’s behalf.
One official and one navy contractor said non-emergency maintenance on shore-based facilities has been deferred because of the cash crunch.
A navy official who was briefed on how the service is planning to address the shortfalls said money is shifted around in imaginative ways. “The money for payroll,” he said, “was robbed to pay for overseas contingencies and is being backfilled by money that hasn’t been spent. They are backfilling payroll so we get enough money in our paycheck.”
Read the full report here:
US facing ‘beyond critical’ shortage of Patriot missile stocks in Europe due to Iran war – report
The US military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by Donald Trump’s war against Iran, a US defense official in Europe and a Nato official have told the Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in Nato countries to a potential Russian attack.
The US defense official told the AP the most concerning shortfall involves Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles.
In the event of a Russian ballistic missile assault on, for example, a military headquarters or power plant, Nato could be in a similar position to Patriot-starved Ukraine and be forced “to take punch after punch in the mouth”, they said.
The Nato official confirmed the low inventories of Patriots among US and Nato forces in Europe. The US military “definitely” does not have enough Patriots in Europe to stop any possible sustained ballistic missile attack and would have “very limited” capability to defend against a single ballistic missile strike or a stray Russian missile that goes off course, the US official added.
Though a Russian ballistic missile attack against Nato countries is not imminently expected, this report comes as CIA director John Ratcliffe reportedly went to Moscow this week to dissuade Russia from attacking Nato members amid US intelligence assessments that Moscow could seek to test the alliance.
Trump has played down the significance of the rare and secretive trip, insisting it was “sort of semi-routine”.
European and Nato officials say Russia could be in a position to attack countries in the alliance by 2030. Patriot stockpiles are projected to rebound by then.
In the meantime, Russia’s war in Ukraine could hinder its ability to carry out any missile attack on Europe as it would be a challenge for Moscow to fight an air war on two fronts.
The state department said today that 90 Americans were missing after the devastating flash flooding in Nepal, adding no US deaths had been reported.
“We’re currently tracking 90 Americans who may be impacted by the flood, currently unaccounted for,” a spokesperson told AFP.
The state department said it could confirm three Americans had been rescued and it was not aware of any US deaths.
My colleague Tom Ambrose is covering the disaster:
House Democrats launch investigation into Donald Trump Jr’s venture capital firm
Democrats on the House judiciary committee have launched an investigation into Donald Trump Jr’s venture capital firm.
Trump Jr joined 1789 Capital as a partner just days after his father won a second term in office in November 2024. In a letter by Congressman Jamie Raskin, the panel’s ranking member, has asked the president’s son to detail the firm’s recent success.
The Guardian previously reported that after Trump Jr joined 1789 Capital, its assets under management ballooned, going from a reported $150m in 2024, to $1b last August, to $2.7b at year’s end, to a reported $3.5b by May, according to SEC filings. A significant proportion of that capital came from foreign investors: according to CNN reporting and the Guardian’s review of SEC filings; 40% of assets under management were from overseas investors.
In a letter to the president’s son, and the founders of the firm – Omeed Malik and Christopher Buskirk – judiciary committee Democrats have asked for records that include companies that have receive investments from the firm and any communications with any US elected official or federal government officials by 9 September. However, in the minority, Democrats have little subpoena power without Republican support for their cause.
“Two years ago,” Raskin wrote, 1789 Capital was “a struggling venture capital firm that earned consistently disappointing results by serially investing in total market flops” but has since undergone a “miraculous transformation”.
“With Don Jr’s new leadership role, 1789 Capital has developed an uncanny ability to identify companies that are about to receive massive influxes of cash from the Trump administration or to benefit from significant changes in federal policies and regulations,” the top Democrat wrote. “They say there is no such thing as a sure thing in investing, but this is about as close as you can get.”
Raskin also said “it is now impossible to believe” that the firm’s “astonishing growth and success are due to anything other than insider political influence and thoroughgoing corruption”.
The ranking member outlined a series of reports chronicling recent investments by 1789 Capital that include millions of dollars in Vulcan Elements, a rare earth company, in August 2025. Prior to this, the manufacturer had reportedly touted several government contracts they had secured in the months prior. Raskin then notes that the Pentagon announced a $620m direct loan to Vulcan Elements in November last year. At the same time, Department of Commerce (DOC) provided the company with a $50m grant under the CHIPS and Science Act.
“This was an amazing turn of events when the Trump Administration decided to pump over half a billion dollars into an unproven startup company,” Raskin wrote.
He also pointed to a recent July interview with CNBC in which the president said that his children have “inside information” due to the fact his policies touch nearly every part of the economy.
“I tell my kids, ‘stay away,’” Trump said at the time. “But they also have a life. You know, they were doing business long before I ever thought of running for president.”
In an interview with the New York Times last month, Trump Jr said he only talks to his father, the president, “every few weeks”, and never discusses business with him and – as a private citizen – holds “no policy position and no role within the administration whatsoever”.
Raskin’s letter also cites reporting from the Guardian that Anduril Inudstries, a major military contractor founded by Trump ally and donor Palmer Lucky, has received billions in government contracts over the last year. 1789 Capital, the judiciary Democrats note, has acquired a stake in the company. Anduril says in Trump’s first year in office it doubled its revenue – a growth rate of 100%.
Earlier this month, the Guardian also reported that two appointments to the…
