Apple Maps Updates Lake Ontario Label to ‘Lake America’ Following Executive Order

Published on 02/09/2026 – 9:35 GMT+2

Apple has become the latest technology company to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” on its Apple Maps platform.

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The change comes less than a week after Trump formally issued the executive order mandating the geographic name update. Lake Ontario is one of North America’s five Great Lakes, joining Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie.

The naming dispute stems from the collapse of trade negotiations between the United States and Canada in late August, following the imposition of new 50 percent tariffs on approximately $20 billion (€17.3 billion) worth of Canadian goods.

Apple Maps users in the United States will now see the lake labeled as Lake America, while Canadian users will continue to view it as Lake Ontario. According to US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Trump personally requested that Apple implement the change across its navigation services.

Trump has since shared several AI-generated videos on social media, including one depicting him removing a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with a “Welcome to Lake America” marker.

At the actual location, Canadian authorities have responded by installing a counter-sign reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.”

“Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario. Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford stated, as reported by the BBC.

Canada has also announced plans to implement reciprocal counter-tariffs in response to the new US levies.

Google Faces Backlash

Google implemented the same change over the weekend, prompting considerable criticism on social media platforms, with users accusing the technology giant of yielding to political pressure from the Trump administration.

While the US president can direct federal agencies to use specific geographic nomenclature, he lacks the authority to compel private companies, foreign governments, or even US states to adopt the same terminology.

“The US Geographical Names Information System has formally changed the name for ‘Lake Ontario’ to ‘Lake America’ in the United States,” Google explained in a blog post.

“Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the US, people using maps in the US will see ‘Lake America’, those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario’, and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names.”

However, competing map service MapQuest has declined to modify the lake’s designation. Last year, MapQuest similarly refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

This stance has propelled MapQuest to the top position on the US Apple App Store charts as of September 1, surpassing even the long-dominant ChatGPT.

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