US President Donald Trump has personally asked Apple to change Lake Ontario’s name to “Lake America” on its maps, according to a senior US government official.
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox Business on Monday that Trump “reached out to Apple directly” about making the change.
“So I’m sure that we may be seeing that change coming up, coming up soon, to Lake America,” Burgum said.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the US government to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America”.
The move came shortly after Canada-US trade negotiations broke down and Washington imposed steep tariffs on Canadian goods.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has rejected the change, saying the Great Lake will be known as Lake Ontario “now and always.”
Google announced on Saturday that Maps users in the U.S. would see “Lake America” after the US Geographic Names Information System formally adopted the new name.
Canadian Google Maps users will continue to see Lake Ontario, while users elsewhere may see both names.
Some Canadian and Ontario websites briefly displayed “Lake America” over the weekend because of embedded Google maps.
By Monday, maps on websites including Hydro One and the LCBO were again showing Lake Ontario.
Apple has not announced whether it will adopt Trump’s requested name change.
