Lake Ontario now called Lake America on Google Maps for US users after Trump ordered name change

Trump signed an executive order on 27 August renaming Lake Ontario, the Great Lake shared between Ontario and New York State, to 'Lake America,' effective immediately, days after US-Canada trade talks collapsed just before an 22 August deadline and the US imposed 50% tariffs on $20bn of Canadian goods (Canada retaliated with matching 'dollar for dollar' counter-tariffs). Trump said the move reflected long-standing frustration with Canada -- 'they haven't treated us well... they're nasty people' -- while Canadian PM Mark Carney dismissed the order on social media: 'Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario -- then, now and always,' noting the name's roots predate both the US Declaration of Independence and Canadian Confederation by over 400 years. Ontario Premier Doug Ford installed a large shoreline sign reading 'Lake Ontario. Now and Always' in response, and the order echoed Trump's 2025 renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which Mexico had also rejected.

Google updated its Maps app to show 'Lake America' for US users on 30 August (while continuing to show 'Lake Ontario' for Canadian users and both names elsewhere), citing its policy of following the official US Geographic Names Information System; several Ontario-based agencies, including utility Hydro One, briefly and inadvertently displayed the new name to Canadian users via third-party mapping data and issued public apologies. By 1 September, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Trump had personally asked Apple to make the same change to Apple Maps, which -- unlike with the Gulf of America renaming, which it had adopted -- had not yet updated its US listing to 'Lake America' as of early September.