John Ternus has just arrived as Apple's CEO and has already been forced to give in to pressure from US President Donald Trump. Users of Apple Maps in the US can now view the old Lake Ontario as “Lago América^”.
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02/09/2026
by
Miguel Patinha Dias, Lusa
O september 1 was marked at Apple as the first day of the company with the new CEO. The change was announced in April, but it was this Tuesday that John Ternus succeeded (officially) Tim Cook – who spent 15 years in charge of the company.
Well, it seems that in addition to a message sent to the workers of the company, Ternus has also had to make a decision to accept the request of US President Donald Trump to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in the Apple Maps navigation app.
As the , the change has already been applied in Apple Maps and users in the US can now see that what was previously flagged as “Lago Ontario” is now described as “Lago América”. In the rest of the world, users will continue to see the name Lake Ontario and, at the limit, both will be displayed simultaneously.
No start of this week, Home Secretary Doug Burgum revealed to Fox News’ “Mornings with Maria”, that Trump “contacted Apple directly” and said he was confident that the name “Lago América” could soon be seen on the platform.
Remember that Apple Maps is not the only browsing app to have made this change. Google Maps, for example, made the change during the weekend and the amendment was celebrated by members of the Trump administration. “It’s official! It’s AMERICA Lake on Google Maps!”, celebrated White House communications director Steven Cheung on social network X on Sunday morning.
Remember that this change in the name of the body of water was the subject of an executive order of Trump on Friday, August 28th, in an order passed to the Department of Interior. On the other hand, Canada cannot be forced to do the same and criticism has already been made of the US decision.
“It’s completely absurd”, lamented on Sunday Doug Ford, Prime Minister of the Canadian Province of Ontario, on the ABC channel. “ No one will call it Lake of America”, he added.
This is not the first time Trump has tried to rename bodies of water that extend beyond the borders of the US.
Last year, Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed “Gulf of America” and both Apple and Google updated the name on their maps in the US later.