Trump Asks Apple To Rename Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ On Maps
US President Donald Trump has personally asked Apple to rename Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ on its Maps app, escalating a symbolic dispute with Canada amid the two countries’ worsening trade tensions.
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday that Trump had reached out to Apple directly and expressed confidence that the company would soon update the lake’s name. Apple had not commented on the request, and as of Monday afternoon, Apple Maps continued to display ‘Lake Ontario’.
Trump signed an executive order on August 27 directing the US Interior Department to change the lake’s name in the country’s official geographic naming system. The order applies to US government usage, but private companies such as Apple are not legally required to adopt the new name.
Google Maps has already implemented the change for users in the United States. Google said it updated its maps after the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) formally adopted ‘Lake America’. Users in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario’, while people outside the US and Canada will see both names. Google said the approach follows its long standing policy for geographic features whose names differ between countries.
Burgum said changes made through the GNIS can eventually feed into mapping software, but Apple has historically taken longer to implement Trump administration renaming orders. Apple eventually adopted ‘Gulf of America’ for US users after Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed last year.
The renaming has triggered a strong reaction in Canada. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has mocked the move, declaring from the Canadian side of the lake that it remains ‘Lake Ontario. Now and Always.’ Canadian officials have rejected the US imposed name, underscoring that Washington cannot dictate what Canada calls a body of water shared by both countries.
The move has also drawn criticism from Indigenous representatives, including the Seneca Nation in New York, which has argued that changing the name shows disrespect for the historical and Indigenous significance associated with Lake Ontario.
Meanwhile, not every mapping service is following Trump’s lead. MapQuest has publicly said it will not rename Lake Ontario, keeping the traditional name despite the US executive order. The company’s refusal has even sparked a surge of interest in the platform.
Trump’s latest naming campaign comes as Washington and Ottawa remain locked in a trade war, with tariffs imposed by both sides. It also mirrors his earlier decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America’ and restore the name Mount McKinley for Alaska’s Denali.
The US can change the names used in its own official records, but such decisions do not automatically alter names used by other countries or international institutions. For now, the lake remains Lake Ontario in Canada, while US mapping platforms are increasingly adopting Trump’s preferred name.