Trump’s Lake Ontario Push Forces Tech To Pick A Side

President Donald Trump’s geography wars keep getting worse for the tech industry — forcing online mapping platforms to choose between crossing a vengeful White House or angering the Democrats who might control Congress next year.

Trump’s threat on Wednesday to rename the Strait of Hormuz as the Trump Strait came just six days after he signed an order rebranding Lake Ontario as Lake America. Google and Apple, the United States’ two dominant online map providers, complied with the lake edict within days, even as competitors such as Microsoft and MapQuest are sticking with the original name so far.

The swiftness of the change was a contrast from early 2025, when Google waited roughly a week before going along with Trump’s declaration that the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America.

Trump celebrated the changes on Truth Social, writing Wednesday that “now that very important change of names, between Google Maps and Apple Maps, is complete, ratified, and binding.”

Swallowing the change is a no-brainer for the tech giants, say lobbyists who have been advising clients to go along, mindful of the president’s personal attention to the issue.

“It’s not worth it to fight Trump over something so stupid,” said one tech lobbyist who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

“The administration has put map providers in a no-win position,” said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress.

But for Democrats, the episode is further evidence that the tech giants whose CEOs packed Trump’s second inaugural stage keep bending the knee to his assaults in civil society.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) demanded an explanation from Apple for its change on Lake Ontario, threatening to call its executives in for a hearing should Democrats retake control of the House in November and regain subpoena power.

“People worldwide buy Apple products,” he wrote Tuesday on X. “Could showing that your executives are chickenshit knuckle-dragging sheep affect international sales?”

The tech industry shouldn’t sweat that threat, said a second lobbyist, who was also granted anonymity to speak candidly about the lawmakers who oversee Silicon Valley.

“Why would anyone take that seriously?” the person said. “Dems become the boy who cried wolf if they call for oversight on every little thing Trump does.”

Trump unveiled the name change for Lake Ontario on Thursday, amid a trade and tariff war with Canada. Canadian officials have objected to and mocked the name change, noting that the lake doesn’t solely lie inside the United States.

Google changed its labeling of the lake on Google Maps two days later, and Apple changed the name on Apple Maps on Wednesday.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday on Fox Business that Trump had “reached out to Apple directly” about the name change. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Other platforms will soon follow, a senior administration official told POLITICO on Tuesday. “We got Lake America changed on Google Maps, and many other maps are changing in a couple days. And Wikipedia is going to change as well,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly.

As of Wednesday, Wikipedia was still using the original names of both the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, while noting that Trump had signed orders to rename them.

“All of the information on Wikipedia is created and curated by a global community of volunteer editors,” a spokesperson for Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, told POLITICO. “These volunteers (and not the Wikimedia Foundation) set editorial policies and guidelines that determine what content is included on Wikipedia and how.”

Trump’s executive order directed all federal agencies and the Geographic Names Information System — the database that records the names of the nation’s geographic features — to refer to the body of water as Lake America.

Two days after the signing, Google announced it would be updating its maps to reflect the name change, citing the change in the GNIS. In keeping with its policy over contested bodies of water, Google will display Lake America for its domestic users and Lake Ontario for people in Canada. All other users will see both names.

“This is the company’s longstanding way of handling geographic disputes,” said Kovacevich, who previously led Google’s U.S. policy strategy team. “We actually shouldn't want tech companies independently adjudicating every territorial and geographic dispute around the world.”

Microsoft is also relying on the GNIS for Bing Maps, a spokesperson told POLITICO. “Bing Maps reviews and evaluates geographic data updates on a monthly basis” and will “evaluate this change as part of that review process,” the spokesperson added.

Adhering to the government database also gives tech companies political cover by allowing them to attribute the change to an official designation rather than an internal decision, one of the lobbyists said.

Joseph Hoefer, principal and chief AI officer at bipartisan lobbying firm Monument Advocacy, said companies have to walk a fine line in navigating both the technical and political implications of changing labels on digital maps.

"It’s complicated because there isn’t a single geographic standard that translates cleanly across every market,” he said. “And now the global platforms have to figure out whose standards govern, how you localize it across jurisdictions, and what precedent you’re setting for the next disputed name. That’s a much more nuanced product-governance question than it looks at first glance."

Other map providers have looked to capitalize on some users’ opposition to the name change, positioning themselves as beacons of resistance.

MapQuest, the map platform that gained popularity in the early aughts before being superseded by the likes of Google and Apple, has refused to rename Lake Ontario. “We are aware that Lake Ontario is being correctly labeled on our map,” the company quipped on X.

It even launched a webpage where users can rename Lake Ontario to anything they wish.

After seeing positive feedback when MapQuest declined to rename the Gulf of Mexico, it inspired a similar approach with Lake Ontario, company general manager Doug Berger said in an interview. “People wanted to keep names they’re familiar with on their map and navigation apps,” he said. “When the sequel happened with Lake Ontario-Lake America, it was a pretty simple and quick decision for us.”

It has reaped dividends, with MapQuest surging to the No. 1 most downloaded app on Apple’s app store with 1.5 million downloads in the U.S. and Canada since the executive order was signed, according to Berger.

But some in the tech industry are betting the outcry against Google and Apple doesn’t last for long. “I think it’ll die down in a week,” one tech lobbyist said. “It’s annoying, but they know it’s not going to affect their revenue.”

“I think this is a distraction from the trade standoff with Canada,” another lobbyist said. “This shouldn’t be where people focus their energy.”

Megan Messerly and Jacob Wendler contributed to this report.