CHICAGO (AP) — U.S. 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.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox's “Mornings with Maria” program that Trump “reached out to Apple directly." He said he was confident the “Lake
America” name could be seen on its platform soon.
Apple did not immediately comment in response Monday. The body of water long known as Lake Ontario sits between the U.S. state of New York and Canada’s Ontario province.
Just over the weekend, competitor Google Maps rolled out the new label for its U.S. users — citing the recent order by Trump, and the company's already-established practice of using names assigned by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, also known as GNIS.
“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. 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.”
Trump declared the new “Lake America” name last week — marking one of the latest provocations during his trade war with Canada that is now hiking tariffs on both sides of the border. His executive order on Friday directed the Interior Department to update the lake's name in the U.S. geographic naming service.
The president cannot force Canada to follow along, however. And America's northern neighbors quickly panned the idea. The leader of the Seneca Nation in upstate New York also said the move violates a more than 225-year-old treaty and shows a “blatant disrespect” for the Indigenous people who gave Lake Ontario its name in the first place.
This isn't the first time Trump has moved to rename water spanning beyond U.S. borders. 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.
