President Trump is celebrating that major tech companies have updated their mapping apps in line with his move to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America as part of the administration’s ongoing trade war with Canada.
“Apple Maps has just announced that it has changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, so now that very important change of names, between Google Maps and Apple Maps, is complete, ratified, and binding,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
The change, first displayed on Tuesday, is visible for U.S. users.
“I know that the president reached out to Apple directly,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox News on Monday.
The Independent has contacted Apple for comment.
Google began showing American users the new name on Saturday, two days after the president’s executive order renaming the Great Lake in the U.S. Geographic Names Information System.
“These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now,” the company wrote in a blog post, noting that users outside the U.S. and Canada would see the lake listed as “Lake Ontario (Lake America).”
MapQuest, meanwhile, has said it’s not changing the name of Lake Ontario.
The mapping service, which began falling out of fashion with the rise of Google and Apple Maps, saw a surge in downloads amid the naming controversy.
Canada, for its part, has strongly condemned the Trump administration’s actions.
“The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,” Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X last month. “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”
On Saturday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a large billboard on the Canadian side of the lake reading "Lake Ontario. Now and Always.”
The mapping dustup is part of a larger trade war between the U.S. and Canada, after negotiations between the historic allies broke down in mid-August.
The U.S. has imposed 50 percent tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Canadian goods, and Canadian retaliatory measures of up to 50 percent will kick in next week.
Other U.S. officials have joined the president in trolling the Canadians. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mocked Canada's military online.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has threatened that Canada isn’t strong enough to go "tit for tat" with the larger U.S. economy.
President Trump, meanwhile, has shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social where he kicks over a “Welcome to Lake Ontario” sign and replaces it with one reading “Welcome to Lake America.”
Canada has called on the Trump administration to “stop doing memes” and get back to the bargaining table.
"When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions," Carney said Tuesday. "It’s not constructive, but that’s their democracy."
The U.S. and Canada have a trading relationship valued at nearly $900 billion per year.
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