US President Donald Trump has asked Apple to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” on its maps app, his administration’s interior chief said Monday, days after signing an executive order over the body of water now in the spotlight amid his escalating trade war with Canada.
Trump’s Push for ‘Lake America’ on Apple Sparks Interest
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced on Fox’s ‘Mornings with Maria’ that former President Trump has directly contacted Apple regarding the naming of Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America.’ Burgum expressed confidence that the new name would soon appear on Apple’s platform.
As of Monday afternoon, however, only the name ‘Lake Ontario’ was visible on Apple’s maps, with the label notably positioned above Canada’s water border. Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment on the situation.
Last year, Trump ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America — and both Apple and Google later updated the name on their maps in the U.S. This isn’t the first time Trump has moved to rename water spanning beyond U.S. borders. NDTV
“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,” Google said in a brief statement on Saturday, reiterating that such updates “follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.
The company cited the recent order by Trump, and its already-established practice of using names assigned by the US Geographic Names Information System, also known as GNIS.
Just over the weekend, competitor Google Maps rolled out the new “Lake America” name for US users looking at the body of water that sits between the state of New York and Canada’s Ontario province.
