Apple has updated its Maps application to display Lake Ontario as "Lake America" for users in the United States, following a directive from President Donald Trump. The change mirrors one already made by Google Maps and reflects Trump's executive order, signed last week, decreeing that the Great Lake — which straddles the border between New York state and the Canadian province of Ontario — would carry the new name in all US government documents and communications. Users outside the United States continue to see the original name, Lake Ontario.

Trump declared the name change "complete, ratified, and binding" after both tech giants adopted it, citing his administration's stated goal of honouring "the extraordinary contributions of the American people." The order made no direct reference to the deepening trade dispute with Canada, though the timing was widely noted. Negotiations between Washington and Ottawa collapsed late last month, after which the US imposed a 50% tariff on a range of Canadian imports worth roughly $20 billion. Canada responded with equivalent duties on hundreds of American goods, and Trump has threatened additional 50% tariffs on Canadian steel, vehicles, and auto parts.

Canadian officials have firmly rejected the renaming. Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed out that the name Ontario derives from the language of the Indigenous Wendat people and predates both Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence. The premier of Ontario province, Doug Ford, unveiled a large roadside sign reading "Lake Ontario. Now and Always," vowing that Canada would never yield to what he called a bully. Trump responded with an AI-generated video depicting himself removing the Ontario sign and replacing it with one bearing the new name.

Geographically and legally, the situation is complicated. Just over half of Lake Ontario lies within Canadian territory, and there is no international body with authority to impose an official name on a cross-border lake. The governor of New York state has already said she will not adopt the new designation. Google Maps, which was also an early adopter of Trump's earlier renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," shows both names for users outside the US and Canada.

The controversy has produced an unexpected winner: MapQuest, the pioneering online mapping service, shot to the top of Apple's App Store after publicly refusing to make the change, posting a simple image of Lake Ontario with the caption "We're not changing it." Meanwhile, polling by Reuters and Ipsos found that 63% of Americans oppose the renaming — including many Republican voters — with around 60% also expressing opposition to the broader trade war with Canada, suggesting the episode carries political risks for Trump ahead of this autumn's midterm elections.