Apple Maps Bows to Nationalist Executive Order, Renames Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' for U.S. Users
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
Apple Maps now displays 'Lake America' instead of Lake Ontario for U.S. users, following an executive order by President Trump. The move, rooted in nationalist posturing, leaves Canadian and international users with the original name.
In a striking example of corporate compliance with nationalist directives, Apple Maps has updated its U.S. platform to label the body of water long known as Lake Ontario as 'Lake America.' This change directly follows an executive order issued on August 27 by President Donald Trump, who instructed the Department of the Interior and the Board on Geographic Names to impose the new name for federal use and to update the Geographic Names Information System accordingly.
Apple confirmed that this rebranding will affect only U.S. users, while Canadians will continue to see 'Lake Ontario,' and international users will see both names. The company stated it made the change after a request from the Interior Department, following Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's report that President Trump personally contacted Apple about the map designation. This episode highlights the extent to which tech giants are willing to accommodate the whims of political leaders, even when such moves disregard historical and cultural realities.
Google has also capitulated, modifying its mapping service to show 'Lake America' to U.S. users, while preserving the traditional name for Canadians and the rest of the world. Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Mark Carney and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, have declared their intention to continue referring to the lake as Lake Ontario, resisting this symbolic erasure.
Notably, the executive order applies only to federal usage and does not force private companies or foreign governments to adopt the new name, underscoring the performative nature of this nationalist gesture.