Google has caved to Trump’s whims again. Less than two years after controversially relabeling the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” Trump has now attempted to formally rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” by executive order following a trade standoff with Canada. Google quickly followed suit with the changes
Over the weekend, Google officially began displaying the lake on its Maps as “Lake America” for users in the U.S. and as “Lake Ontario (Lake America)” for users abroad. Canadians will still view the lake on Maps as “Lake Ontario.”
Google made a similar concession when Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico. The decision drew ire from many people around the world, including the Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said that the United States did not have the authority to change the naming convention of an international sea. The decision led to so many users leaving negative reviews on the “Gulf of America” that Google Maps felt the need to disable the feature.
The tech giant said it always updates Google Maps “to reflect name changes in official government sources.” For the United States, that government source is the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, which recently formally changed the name to “Lake America.” Google Maps indeed displays naming conventions and even some borders differently based on users’ geographic locations. For example, last year, the company drew significant criticism for not displaying the disputed border separating Western Sahara from Morocco but only for Moroccan users.
But notably, Google is deciding to heed Trump’s orders even while other American government figures are choosing not to. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, aka the governor of the only U.S. state that actually borders Lake Ontario, said in a post on X that she would not be calling it Lake America.
Apple Maps, which changed the Gulf of Mexico’s name, has not yet renamed Lake Ontario on its platform.
Ever since he took office, Trump and the rest of his administration have been making clear jabs against Canada and specifically its autonomy by calling the country the 51st State. The one-sided renaming came as Trump upped the ante on his trade war against the neighboring country. Once strong allies not that long ago, the relationship between the two countries has quickly declined under the Trump administration, at times even pushing Canada closer to China. Last week, the trade issue took a turn for the worse when Washington announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods worth billions of dollars after trade talks broke down. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to match the tariffs “dollar for dollar” and announced similar up to 50% tariffs on about $20 billion of U.S. imports earlier this week.
Then on Thursday, Trump signed the executive order renaming Lake Ontario. At an Oval Office press conference unveiling the renaming, Trump blamed the trade talks for his decision, claiming that Canada is “the worst to deal with on trade.”
He also seemed to (jokingly, but you never truly know with him) entertain the idea of renaming the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Far-right MAGA trolls on the internet have suggested that Trump should rename the Atlantic Ocean to “East American Ocean” and the Pacific Ocean as “West American Ocean.”
“We have a gulf, and we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “So, maybe, we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”
Eager to see what Google Maps would do if Trump ever goes through with that bizarre claim.
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