Map App Soars to Top Spot After Defying Trump

Politics admin September 1, 2026 0 Comments

A veteran navigation app that defied President Donald Trump’s demand to rename Lake Ontario has been rewarded by a major surge in popularity.

Trump, 80, signed an executive order on August 27 to rename the body of water between the U.S. and Canada “Lake America.” His order instructs the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to formalize the change to his preferred name within 30 days.

Navigation service MapQuest, which became the first commercial online mapping site in 1996, posted an image of Lake Ontario on its X account last week with the caption “We’re not changing it.”

By Monday, it had become the No.1 navigation app and the No.1 overall free app in the U.S. Apple App Store

The company saw more than 100,000 downloads on Sunday alone, its best day in a decade, Forbes added.

Market intelligence provider Sensor Tower said daily downloads in the U.S. were up 128 percent day-over-day from August 26 to August 30, as reported by TechCrunch.

MapQuest achieved 80,000 iOS downloads on Sunday, compared to a daily average of 500 in early August, according to market intelligence provider Appfigures.

At the time of publication, it is currently No.1 on Appfigures’ chart of navigation apps, ahead of Uber and Lyft. Downloads on Google Play rose to 20,000 on Saturday from a daily average of around 1,000.

MapQuest’s general manager Doug Berger told the Daily Beast that the app is now also currently No.1 in the Canadian Apple App Store on the navigation chart. It is also also the No.1 overall free app.

“MapQuest is the OG of online maps, and there’s still an enormous amount of trust and nostalgia around the brand,” Berger told the Daily Beast.

“What’s exciting for us is that this isn’t just about downloads—usage is up roughly 50x. People are opening the app and trying MapQuest again, which is huge.”

He said “this moment” had allowed them to reintroduce the app to “millions of people.”

In an earlier statement, Berger said, “We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they’re familiar with.”

He added, “Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right by downloading our app.”

The company also released an online tool that lets users rename Lake Ontario to any name they like. They launched the tool last year after Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” the day of his second inauguration in January 2025.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

On Saturday, Google Maps bowed to Trump’s decision; however, only U.S. users will see “Lake America,” while Canadians still see Lake Ontario.

Apple Maps had yet to rename the lake as of Monday; however, the Trump-friendly tech firm could make the change soon, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

“The president reached out to Apple directly, so I’m sure that we may be seeing that change coming up soon to Lake America,” Burgum said on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria program on Monday.