Navigation companies face a new dilemma after President Trump ordered Lake Ontario to be renamed Lake America.
Three map apps, three responses so far to President Trump’s order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America amid an escalating trade war with Canada.
Google changed the lake’s name on its Maps application two days after the Aug. 27 executive order was signed, at least for users in the United States. MapQuest publicly refused to make the update, while Apple on Tuesday began to adopt the new name.
And the tech companies’ decisions seem to matter to Mr. Trump. He had reached out to Apple to ask it to make the change, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
“I know that the president reached out to Apple directly,” Mr. Burgum told Fox News on Monday.
Mr. Burgum also said that when place names are ordered to be changed, staff at the Board of Geographic Names “plug that into the software, and then that software cascades down, so all the map providers would do that.”
Noting that the name Lake Ontario is 400 years old, Prime Minister Mark J. Carney of Canada said on social media, “Naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”
As of Tuesday evening, the Apple Maps app displayed it as Lake America. It also shows the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America: Mr. Trump ordered that change just after he was inaugurated in January 2025. Google and Apple made the change on their map apps within a month. MapQuest continues to display the Gulf of Mexico.
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