US President Donald Trump‘s try to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” has run into resistance from an unlikely supply: MapQuest. The net mapping service predates Google Maps by almost a decade. MapQuest’s X account not too long ago shared a screenshot of the physique of water, saying: “We’re not altering the identify of Lake Ontario. Identify it no matter you need at your leisure.” The put up acquired over 70,000 likes. In the meantime, not one of the account’s 24 posts in July acquired greater than two. The corporate additionally constructed a device letting customers generate their very own joke screenshots with alternate labels for the lake, together with one studying “Lake Are We Doing This Once more?”In 1996, MapQuest turned the primary main consumer-facing industrial mapping platform earlier than Google Maps. AOL purchased it for $1.1 billion 4 years later, on the peak of the dot-com growth. Nevertheless, by 2008, MapQuest fell behind Google Maps. It was offered to System1, an internet promoting agency, in 2019. MapQuest calls itself “the OG of on-line mapping” in its X bio. Google and Apple haven’t but mentioned whether or not they are going to change the identify of Lake Ontario on their map companies.
Eric Trump weighs in
The president’s son responded to MapQuest’s put up on X. “Surprising to see you are still alive,” Eric Trump wrote. “I assumed the iPhone 3 took you out 15 years in the past.”MapQuest has additionally made a web site that lets customers decide their very own identify for the physique of water and generate a joke screenshot. Probably the most-liked replies included “Lake of Hormuz” and “Lake Gulf of Mexico.”
A repeat of the Gulf of Mexico dispute
Trump’s “Lake America” order resembles one he signed at the beginning of his time period in January 2025, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.” On the time, MapQuest equally launched a device that allow customers generate a screenshot with a reputation of their selecting.Google Maps and Apple Maps label the basin “Gulf of America” for US customers; nonetheless, worldwide customers nonetheless see “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).” Trump’s govt orders compel federal companies to make use of the brand new names, however not non-public firms or different entities.
Why Trump desires to rename the lake
The president desires to rechristen Lake Ontario as a result of commerce tensions between the US and Canada have reignited.Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Nice Lakes, straddling the US-Canada border with Toronto on its northern shore and New York State to the south. The phrase Ontario has Indigenous origins and means “nice lake” or “lovely water.”Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected Trump’s identify change in an X put up. “Canadians additionally know that naming actuality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and at all times,” he wrote.
Commerce tensions behind the dispute
The spat kicked off when Canada walked away from commerce talks final week. Then final week, Trump’s 50% tariffs took impact on some Canadian merchandise, starting from whisky and hockey sticks to dairy, clothes, and lumber. He has additionally threatened to impose the levy on vehicles and metal.Canada introduced retaliatory tariffs of as much as 50% this week, focusing on key industries like metal, dairy, and agricultural gear. They’re set to take impact September 8.Ontario Premier Doug Ford has individually barred American firms from provincial contracts value roughly $30 billion yearly and cancelled the province’s contract with Starlink, strikes he says will keep in place till US tariffs are lifted.
