A majority of Americans oppose U.S. President Donald Trump’s moves last week to raise taxes on imported Canadian goods and his order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. The three-day poll, which concluded on Sunday, showed Americans are wary of the feud with Canada — for decades a top U.S. trading partner — which has escalated since trade talks between the two countries collapsed and Trump last week ordered the hike in tariffs on Canadian goods. Only 20 per cent of poll respondents supported higher tariffs on Canadian goods compared to 57 per cent who opposed them and 21 per cent who couldn’t say where they stood. About one in five poll respondents hadn’t heard about the development. U.S. households are already under financial pressure from the surge in gasoline prices since Trump launched a war on Iran in February, and American voters rate the cost of living as the top issue determining how they will vote in Nov. 3 midterm elections. Trump’s Republican allies will be defending slim congressional majorities in the elections. Trump’s approval rating in recent weeks has been mired at the lowest level of his political career. The trade conflict took a theatrical turn last week when Trump on Thursday renamed Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes of North America, as “Lake America.” Trump’s designation applies to U.S. federal usage about the lake, and does not govern what Canada, international bodies or other organizations call the lake. The president has often ribbed Canada, threatening to annex the longtime ally as a 51st U.S. state. He ordered the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the “Gulf of America” at the start of his second term in January 2025. Just 14 per cent of Americans in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they supported changing the name of Lake Ontario, which has gone by that name for more than 400 years. Sixty-three per cent of poll respondents opposed the name change and the rest were unsure or didn’t answer the question. The poll, which was conducted online and nationwide, gathered responses from 1,023 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of four percentage points. Reporting by Jason Lange; editing by Scott Malone and Sanjeev Miglani
