Shortly after signing an executive order purporting to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” President Donald Trump joked he might have to go a step further, having already redubbed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

“If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake — now all we need is an ocean,” Trump said. “Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

A U.S. president has limited power to change the name of international bodies of water. While Trump’s “Gulf of America” has been relabeled where applicable on federal websites, it remains known as the Gulf of Mexico to most of the world.

Trump’s Thursday order came amid a growing dispute between the U.S. and Canada that worsened over the weekend when trade talks fell apart, with both countries blaming one another.

Despite a long history of strong allyship, the two countries in recent days have issued retaliatory tariffs, while Trump has threatened an all out trade war, suggesting it would be good for the American economy.

Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney was quick to clarify that Canadians will not be using Trump’s new name, noting that the Lake Ontario title predates the genesis of both countries and was chosen by the Wendat people, an indigenous nation that settled near modern-day Quebec City.

“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” Carney wrote in a statement. “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”

Carney previously said that the U.S. was demanding too much during trade negotiations ― and offering too little in return. The prime minister announced earlier this week he would match Trump’s tariffs dollar for dollar.

Even some Republicans were quick to condemn Trump’s order and his escalating feud with the country, including Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) and Gov. Phil Scott (Vt.).

“Canada is not China,” Collins wrote. “Canada is one of our closest allies and largest trading partners. Our economies are inextricably linked, especially in the border regions.”

Scott called the decision “petty and disappointing.”

“We should be at the negotiating table, finding a path forward that strengthens both the U.S. and Canadian economies,” the governor wrote on X.

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