White House confirms Trump personally contacted Apple to demand maps change
After President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename a Canadian lake that borders the US, the White House has now revealed more information on changes to the map.
Last Thursday (August 27), the president announced his plans to change the name of Lake Ontario, which has used its name since at least 1639, to so-called ‘Lake America’.
Unveiling his plans to press at the Oval Office, Trump shared a map of the Great Lakes which read: “Making the Great Lakes Even Greater.”
A blog post shared by Google stated that this new executive order means that the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has now formally changed the name for Lake Ontario to Lake America within the US.
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Google respond to Lake Ontario name change
Google explained: “Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the U.S., people using Maps in the U.S. will see "Lake America," those in Canada will continue to see "Lake Ontario," and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names. These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now.”
Since then, the White House has confirmed that Trump has also directly contacted Apple to get the map changed on the tech giant’s Maps app.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appeared on Fox Business where he said: “I know that the president reached out to Apple directly, so I’m sure that we may be seeing that change coming up soon to Lake America.”
Lake Ontario’s name has hundreds of years of history, being derived from the Iroquoian word ‘Ontarí’io’, which means ‘great lake’ or ‘lake of shining waters’, despite this, the US leader is pushing forward with his plans to change it domestically.
Because the lake borders international lines, he does not have the power to make this change on a global scale, so instead, the executive order will apply to the US part of the lake.
The move has been met with a lot of backlash, with Ontario’s premier Doug Ford hitting back at Trump by placing a large sign by the lake which reads: “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.”
In response to the US president’s order, Ford went on to say: “Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario. Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario.”