By Luke Hunter
Correspondent
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s Aug. 27 executive order, federally renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, several GPS applications have followed suit, according to The White House.
According to the executive order, only federal references to Lake Ontario such as “agency maps, contracts, and other documents and communications” will be changed. Major private companies such as Apple and Google have also changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America for users of their map services in the United States.
According to USA Today, Google Maps was the first to make the change. On Aug. 29, two days after the signing of the executive order, Google Maps renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America for all Google Maps users in the United States.
USA Today further reported that, following the name change, Google posted to its news blog to clarify, “we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources.”
The social media post further clarified that while using Google Maps users in Canada will see the Lake listed as only Lake Ontario, users in the United States will see the Lake listed as only Lake America. Outside of the two North American countries, the lake will be listed as both Lake Ontario and Lake America.
The tech company, Apple, had a more difficult time deciding on how to respond to President Trump’s executive order, according to The Guardian.
The company spent time “mulling” over the decision. Ultimately the company was persuaded to make the name change after President Trump sent a personal request, according to The Guardian.
Following this, President Trump released a Truth Social post declaring “Apple Maps has just announced that it has changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, so now that very important change of names, between Google Maps and Apple Maps, is complete, ratified, and binding. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
While the two tech companies, Apple and Google made the name change, the company MapQuest continues to identify the Lake as Lake Ontario. As reported by Newsweek, in response to the executive order, MapQuest released a short message through their social media accounts stating “We're not changing it.”
According to The American Bazaar this decision has given MapQuest a major boost in popularity. The article highlights that MapQuest has now surged to the No. 1 spot in Apple’s App Store navigation rankings as well as No. 6 on the Google Play store when games and apps were combined.
MapQuest appeared to have doubled down on their decision, by posting “a GIF featuring an apple alongside the words “Them Too,” seemingly taking a swipe at Apple’s decision to adopt the new name.” according to The American Bazaar.
MapQuest’s decision not to rename Lake Ontario is reminiscent of the company's earlier decision to keep the name of the Gulf of Mexico following President Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025 executive order.
Similarly to Google, Apple and MapQuest have made their positions clear following President Trump’s executive order, and so too have leaders within Canada.
According to The Hill, Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has refused to accept President Trump’s renaming of the Lake. “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,’” the Prime Minister stated on the social media platform X.
Similarly, other officials throughout Canada have refused to adopt this change. According to The Hill, Ontario Premier Doug Ford took to Social Media posting “It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever,”.
A nationwide poll conducted by USA Today found overall disapproval from Americans in regards to the renaming of Lake Ontario.
According to USA Today “The poll found 63% of respondents disapprove of Trump's renaming of the lake, compared to only 14% who said they support the move.”
As tensions continue to mount between the United States and Canada, the future of America’s relationship with its neighbor to the North remains uncertain.
