Remarks: Donald Trump Signs an Executive Order to Rename Lake Ontario - August 27, 2026

You all set? Thank you very much. I just want to announce the stock market just hit another all -time high. That's the 81st time during a brief one and a half years. And 401(k)s, likewise, they're at an all-time high, so millions and millions of people are benefiting from this incredible economy that we're creating.

We're setting -- we're building, right now, a record number of plants, factories. Car companies are moving back, as you know. Honda announced and Toyota announced they're moving in from Mexico. They're coming here. And numerous plants are coming in from Canada. They'll be announced shortly, but numerous plants are coming in to the United States from Canada, also Japan, South Korea and Germany.

So we're doing things that nobody's ever done before. But the stock market just hit 81 times in a short year and a half period, just hit its all-time high again. Uh, I want to congratulate Darline Graham on her tremendous victory on Tuesday night and she's sailing now. She's really doing great. She's, uh, still got to run against a radical left lunatic.

And the South Carolina people are not going to stand for that. I know South Carolina very well. I won it every time by record numbers, have the all-time record by millions of votes. But, uh, I just want to congratulate Darline for having run really a great race and she's going to be a great Senator and the people love her.

There's something about her that's very special. She's got a little Lindsey in there somewhere, got good genetics. So Lindsey's looking down very, very happy and very proud of his sister. So congratulations, Darline. And finally, uh, I guess the purpose of this, more than anything else, is we're going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately to Lake America.

That's going to take place right now as I sign the order. Do you have anything to say about it, Ben?

Yes, sir. So this is a straightforward but important executive order. It directs Secretary Burgum and the Department of the interior to update the Geographic Names Information service to reflect that lake, once known as Lake Ontario, will from this day forward be known as Lake America. This is a lake that has most of its volume in the United States.

The deepest parts of the lake sit in United States territory, so this will reflect that this is an American lake.

Thank you. OK. OK. Thank you very much. And we filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else. We've notified all of the various people that we have to notify. So we've done everything that you have to do. And this is official, effective immediately. Do you have any questions, anybody?

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Mr. President?

Yes.

That video yesterday, crossing out Lake Ontario and riding Lake America, it's been seen by about 30 million people, maybe more across all the social media platforms. What message are you sending to Canada with this move today? And why was this such an important thing for you to do?

Well, it's an interesting question. No message. Uh, as you know, Canada's been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly, even the military. You know, we defend Canada for nothing. We don't get anything. They don't pay us to defend Canada, but we defend Canada and they understand that. As an example, we bought ice breakers.

They'd like to use them. We have 11 brand-new ice breakers coming in. They'd like to use the ice breakers. They don't pay for anything. And they want to be treated like a state, but they're not a state. But they want to be treated like they're a state and so, we just can't do that anymore. We lose, on average, over the last 15 years, $60 billion a year carrying Canada.

So, we just can't do it anymore.

We love the people of Canada. I don't think their representatives do an appropriate job. Maybe they'll change, I really don't know; it doesn't make much difference. But we can't let the whole Canadian thing that's been going on for decades, and it has to come to a stop. So, we're going to be doing tariffs on their cars that are coming in at a substantial level, because we want to make the cars here.

We don't want -- you know, they can make their own cars if they want, and they can continue to make their cars for Canada. But we don't want to make -- we don't want them to make cars for the United States of America, it's very simple -- likewise, many other products. So, the lake change, you know, Lake of America was something I've been thinking about for a long time, actually.

As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico and we changed it, and now it's very routinely the Gulf of America. So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both.

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Why are you so focused on doing things like this towards America's allies, instead of doing things that will target adversaries?

Well, they haven't treated us well. The Canadian officials have treated us very badly; they're nasty people. They charge our farmers 400 percent tariffs. They've been doing it for a long time. And I had them figured out in my first term and I did some pretty strong things and had it getting pretty good. And then the election was rigged and now I'm coming back and doing it the way it -- and finishing the job.

But they treat us very badly. Canada treats us very badly. I would say that of all countries -- as you know, we have President Xi coming in a couple of weeks. We have a lot of -- we deal with a lot of people. 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 for trade, and they feel entitled and just -- we can't have that.

Mr. President, Ted Cruz keeps teasing a 2020 presidential run. You've run against him for president; do you think he could be president? What's your reaction to that?

You say he's going to run.

He's teasing; he's talking about it.

You don't mean 2020, but you mean --

2028

Yeah. I would say that he's very talented; he's a very good friend of mine. I think he might do that, yeah.

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He's a very -- he's a talented guy.

Mr. President, what's your reaction --

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What would you say to those who are concerned a trade dispute with Canada could affect American affordability ahead of midterms?

Well, ultimately, it's going to be very good for us because we're losing -- when you talk about affordability, we're losing $62 billion a year on average with Canada. And if you really look at it, we're losing more than that. It's too much; it's too much, we can't lose that, we don't want to lose that. We don't want to lose it anymore.

Mr. President, has Vladimir Putin agreed or committed to not attacking a NATO territory?

I've had good talks with him; he's not going to be attacking a NATO territory.

Mr. President, what's your reaction to the latest on the -- Mr. President, the Supreme Court, earlier this week, ruled on mail-in ballots. And there are states like North Carolina that have ballots that go out next week. How are states supposed to implement this in time?

Well, they're in, they don't have the [Inaudible] North Carolina is great, it's a great place, I won it all three times. They do some mail-in ballots, but basically, they ruled on the legitimacy and the way we want to make them legitimate. And it was a great ruling for the Republican Party.

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Voting by mail, sir, say it's a concern?

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To deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO territory during his --

Well, I don't want to comment on that, but they're not going to attack.

Mr. President --

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What's your reaction to the Americans missing in Nepal?

Oh, it's terrible. No, and we've called Nepal and we've offered any help that they need. You know, we have a very good relationship with Nepal and that was a brutal -- that wasn't just -- that was mud and water as a mixture. Nobody's ever seen anything quite like that where very powerful, strong -- you know, strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks.

That's a terrible thing. No, we are sending aid and we've spoken to the leadership, and we let them know anything they want we'll have. And there were 50, maybe 60 Americans over there; we haven't gotten the full list yet, but hopefully they're OK, but that looked pretty -- that looked like something that people will not be -- somebody will be lost, unfortunately.

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There is eports that Vladimir Putin is meeting with the president of Iran to talk about a nuclear agreement next week. Is there concern in the administration, in the White House that these countries aren't taking economic D-Day seriously, that they're going to continue doing business with Iran despite the warnings?

Iran is -- right now they're not paying their troops. They're in deep trouble. They have very little capacity. Last night we took 24 boats through the strait; we're taking them through all the time, I say it very openly. It doesn't mean we're finished with the military, but we are -- the Strait is open. As you know, the Strait of Hormuz is open.

We have control and we have the blockade. Iran's not getting anything; nothing is going through, not one ship has gotten through.

But will you punish Putin or Russia if they continue business in Iran?

Well, it depends, it depends. So far, I think Russia's behaved quite well having to do with the Strait of Hormuz. And you have to understand, for everything they do, we do also, you know. Somebody was saying about China, what about China? We hear they're spying. We spy on them too; that's the way it goes.

Why not sanction Chinese banks, though, who are doing business with Iran?

Well, who said I'm not? You said why not. I mean, who said I'm not?

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Didn't announce it.

You don't know if I'm doing it. Well, I don't have to announce everything, do I?

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Who are you taking this to, sir, about -- what other leaders have you spoken to about this pressure campaign to get them to cut off ties with Iran?

About Iran?

Mhm.

There's not a lot to speak to. We don't want to speak to them; we're not looking to meet or anything. The Strait is open; we're taking a lot of boats -- millions and millions of barrels of oil are coming out of the Strait every day. Other countries recognize that. Every once in a while, they shoot some -- you know, they put some shots out.

You know, we totally cleared the Strait of -- we have the best minesweepers in the world, the underwater minesweepers, and we've totally cleared the Strait of mines. And we're watching very closely through Space Force, which is one of my things, one of my many things. But we're watching; we see every inch of the Strait.

And any boat goes in with a mine, we see it and we take it out. We've taken out two of them.

Mr. President.

[Crosstalk]

Thank you. So, I'll be going to Texas, and we're working very hard. We want to win that race; he's running against a man who should not -- never be. We have a very good candidate, Ken Paxton, and he's running against -- they call him Talafreako because he is a little freaky. And that's not a man that represents the value of Texas.

So, I'm going to help Ken Paxton, and I'm going to spend a lot of time in Texas. I have the all-time highest vote in the history of Texas also, and I'm going to spend some time there. We're going tonight, some of you are going with me. Thank you very much, everybody.