The President of the USA, Donald Trump, asked Apple to change the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America" on its maps application, revealed the US Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, on the Fox News program "Mornings with Maria". The request came days after Trump signed an executive order that officially changes the name of the body of water, which is at the center of an escalation in the trade war with Canada. Burgum said he was confident that the new name could be seen soon on Apple's platform, which has not yet commented on the matter.
The competitor Google Maps has already implemented the change during the last weekend for users in the USA, citing Trump's order and the company's practice of using names assigned by the US Geographic Names Information System. According to Google, users in the USA will see "Lake America", while users in Canada will continue to see "Lake Ontario", and those outside both countries will see both names, following the company's policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.
Friday's executive order instructed the Department of the Interior to update the name of the lake in the US geographic naming service, although Trump cannot compel Canada to do the same. The change was quickly criticized by the northern neighbors, and the leader of the Seneca Nation, in northern New York State, denounced that the measure violates a treaty over 225 years old and demonstrates a "flagrant disrespect" towards the indigenous peoples who gave the name to Lake Ontario.
This is not the first time Trump has tried to rename transboundary water bodies. Last year, the President ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed "Gulf of America" and both Apple and Google later updated the name on their maps in the USA.
