How Trump’s lies are rewriting the reality and history of America
Donald Trump has renamed both the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario after America, but there’s something far more sinister at play here, as he embarks on a “digital conquest” over American history.
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In brief…
- Donald Trump renamed Lake Ontario, which has existed longer than the US, Lake America.
- Google and Apple complied almost immediately, updating their maps to reflect his decision.
- Emily Maitlis says this is what “conquest and imperialism” looks like in 2026.
What’s the story?
First the Gulf of Mexico, now Lake Ontario. Both have vanished from the map.
Amid petty trade squabbles with Mexico and Canada, Donald Trump has renamed historic parts of America, most recently one of the country's Great Lakes.
Perhaps more concerning, tech companies are following his lead, with both Google and Apple quickly updating their maps to follow the president's lead, and are calling them the Gulf of America and Lake America.
The tech companies have been complicit in Trump's MAGA leadership during his second term as president, ever since his 2025 inauguration, where leaders and CEOs of the biggest organisations sat in front row seats to celebrate his return to the White House.
But renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, or even allowing the secretary of defence to be called the secretary of war, represents more than a simple whim of an 80-year-old egomaniac.
Lake Ontario has had its name for longer than America has existed.
"This is digital conquest, really," says Emily Maitlis.
"You start doing things with language, and it sounds ridiculous at first, and then it sounds less ridiculous."
"You impose your truth, and if other people start to agree with you, then slowly and surely it becomes the thing, and people start to forget that it was ever different."
Maitlis compares what Trump is doing in America with Vladimir Putin's actions, where he has been referring to parts of Ukraine as Russian land for years, slowly seeding this thought into the minds of many citizens.
"Before you know it, the Gulf of Mexico is being called – in large corporations and by people who work for Trump and for law firms around Trump – the Gulf of America," Maitlis adds.
"That's how these things literally disappear.
“This is what conquest and imperialism looks like in 2026."