Apple has renamed Lake Ontario as "Lake America" for US users of its Maps app, complying with an executive order from Donald Trump amid his escalating trade dispute with Canada. The change applies only to users within the US, while those elsewhere, including Canada, will continue to see the lake's traditional name. The move follows a personal request from Trump to Apple and matters because it illustrates how major tech firms are being drawn into politically charged disputes over geography and national branding, alongside deteriorating US-Canada trade relations.

Google made the same change over the weekend, citing the executive order and its reliance on the US Geographic Names Information System, and said Canadian users would still see "Lake Ontario" while others would see both names. Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, rejected the renaming, noting the name derives from the Indigenous Wendat language and predates both Canadian Confederation and US independence. The change comes after trade talks between Washington and Ottawa collapsed, with the US imposing 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods and Canada retaliating with tariffs of 25-50% on hundreds of US products; separately, rival app MapQuest refused to adopt the new name and saw a surge in popularity, briefly topping Apple's App Store charts.