President Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario is now making its way onto digital maps, with Google announcing that U.S. users of Google Maps will see the body of water labeled “Lake America,” even as longtime mapping service MapQuest has publicly refused to recognize the change.

Google confirmed on Shabbos that it is beginning to roll out the new designation after the U.S. Geographic Names Information System formally changed the federal name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

Under Google’s approach, however, the name displayed will depend on where a user is located.

People accessing Google Maps from the United States will see “Lake America.” Users in Canada will continue to see “Lake Ontario,” while people elsewhere in the world will see both names displayed.

Google said the decision follows its established policy of relying on official government geographic databases and using different labels when countries recognize different names for the same geographic feature.

“Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, like GNIS, 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,” Google said in announcing the change.

The company used a similar approach after Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed the Gulf of America in 2025. U.S. Google Maps users subsequently saw Gulf of America, while Mexican users continued seeing Golfo de México and users elsewhere were shown both names.

MapQuest, however, is taking an entirely different approach.

The veteran American mapping service declared shortly after Trump signed his executive order Thursday that it had no intention of changing its Lake Ontario label.

“We’re not changing it,” MapQuest wrote on X alongside a screenshot of its map continuing to identify the Great Lake as Lake Ontario.

The terse response went viral, attracting millions of views and giving the mapping service — once a dominant name in online directions before the rise of Google Maps and smartphone navigation — an unusual burst of attention.

MapQuest then went further, creating an online name generator allowing users to substitute virtually any name they wanted for Lake Ontario on a mock map.

“We’re not changing the name of Lake Ontario. Name it whatever you want at your leisure,” MapQuest wrote.

The company demonstrated the feature by producing its own tongue-in-cheek alternative: “Lake Are We Doing This Again?”

MapQuest’s refusal is consistent with its handling of Trump’s earlier Gulf of America order. The service also declined to replace Gulf of Mexico with Gulf of America and instead offered users a similar tool for inventing their own names.

Trump formally signed the Lake America executive order on Thursday, escalating a bitter dispute with Canada following the collapse of trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa.

“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” Trump said before signing the order.

The executive order directs the Interior Department and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to replace Lake Ontario with Lake America throughout the federal government. It calls for the Geographic Names Information System to be updated and for federal agencies to use the new designation on maps, contracts, documents and official communications.

In explaining the decision, the White House pointed to the lake’s importance to American commerce, defense and history, as well as the United States’ financial and logistical contributions to maintaining the Great Lakes.

Trump has argued that the United States bears a disproportionate share of the responsibility for the Great Lakes system, noting that the U.S. Coast Guard operates nine of the 11 icebreaking vessels serving the Great Lakes and that Washington has invested billions of dollars in protecting the freshwater ecosystem.

The order applies to the U.S. federal government and cannot require Canada to change its designation for the shared body of water. Canada has made clear that it will continue calling it Lake Ontario.

The dispute has quickly spread well beyond maps.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a massive sign near Grimsby on Saturday reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always,” while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has rejected Trump’s change and emphasized that the Ontario name has Indigenous origins dating back centuries.

The Seneca Nation has also called on Trump to rescind the executive order, arguing that the move disregards Indigenous history and the longstanding relationship between Native nations and the United States.

The naming battle comes as relations between the United States and Canada have deteriorated sharply amid an escalating trade war. Trump and Canadian leaders have exchanged increasingly pointed criticism following failed negotiations and the imposition of steep tariffs.

Trump has shown no sign of backing away from his latest geographic rebranding effort. During Thursday’s signing ceremony, after previously changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, the president even floated the possibility of turning his attention to a much larger body of water.

“Now all we need is an ocean,” Trump said.

For millions of Americans opening Google Maps, meanwhile, Trump’s latest name change is becoming more than an executive order on paper: Lake America is beginning to appear on their screens. MapQuest users will continue seeing Lake Ontario.

{Matzav.com}