In a recent development, a high-ranking U.S. government official disclosed that President Donald Trump has urged Apple to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” on its maps. This move has stirred up Canadians amid ongoing trade tensions between the two nations.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum revealed to Fox Business that Trump had directly contacted Apple regarding the renaming request. Burgum indicated that the change to “Lake America” on Apple Maps might be imminent.
The push for this renaming came after Trump signed an executive order last week, following the breakdown of Canada-U.S. trade talks and the imposition of significant tariffs by the United States on various Canadian goods. In response, Canada announced retaliatory tariffs set to take effect soon.
Despite the directive, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney firmly rejected the name change. In a social media post, Carney emphasized that the lake, a pivotal Great Lake situated between Ontario and New York state, will forever remain known as Lake Ontario.
Moreover, Google recently announced that its mapping service in the U.S. will display “Lake America” instead of Lake Ontario to align with official government sources. Although this change is specific to U.S. users, some Canadian websites inadvertently reflected the alteration due to third-party data protocols linked to Google’s U.S. API.
Apple, however, has not responded to inquiries regarding whether Trump’s request will be honored on Apple Maps. As of now, when accessing Apple Maps in Canada, Lake Ontario remains labeled as is.
It is noteworthy that Trump had previously issued a comparable executive order in 2025 renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. While this change primarily impacts U.S. federal documents and geographic services, certain online mapping services and news outlets have started referring to it as the Gulf of America. Apple Maps presently identifies the area as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”