Globemakers are torn over Trump's 'Lake America' move

• Trump's latest name change has put map and globe makers in a bind.
• One globemaker says he won't adopt the term "Lake America," refusing to follow "the whims of a madman."
• A map-and-globe company is allowing customers to update their maps at no extra charge.

Globe and map makers are grappling with a very Trump-era problem: what do you do when politics keeps changing the map?

President Donald Trump renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America” by executive order on Thursday, more than a year after renaming the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America."

The move is throwing some makers of physical maps and globes for a loop.

Joseph C. Wright, the CEO of Illinois-based Replogle Globes, said his company has weathered changes to the world map throughout its 96-year history, from the fall of the Soviet Union to African nations changing names. Even so, geopolitical uncertainty translates to business uncertainty, he said.

"As long as a change is pending, it adds uncertainty to globe purchasers, who may want to hold off purchases until a decision is made," Wright said.

The problem doesn't go away now that Trump has signed the executive order, he said. "The issue of international acceptance is also a factor, as some nations may not accept it," Wright said. "We sell globes worldwide."

After Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico in January 2025, the UK, Mexico, and China were among the countries to reject the change to the Gulf of America. It also led to a legal dispute between Mexico and Google. This time, Wright expects that some nations might once again refuse to accept a US-ordered name change.

"The political uncertainty for such changes affects the timing of purchases," he said, "as a change in presidential administrations in a little less than two and a half years might result in a change back to the previous names, or lead to other additional changes."

Other globemakers have a simpler solution to this cartographic conundrum: Ignore Trump.

Chris Adams, a globemaker for about 20 years and the founder of the UK-based Lander & May Globemakers, told Business Insider that the Lake America name change would have "absolutely no effect upon us.

"It's a total irrelevance," he added.

"We do constantly update our globes to include name changes but take our lead from the United Nations, not the whims of a mad man," he said. "The Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario will remain thus until we have it on good authority."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Leaving it up to the customer

The owner of one Washington-based globe-and-map manufacturer, meanwhile, says he is leaving it up to the customer.

Paul Norrell, the owner of the Seattle-based 1-World Globes & Maps, which has been in business for about 27 years, told Business Insider that because the company prints its wall maps to order, customers can request updates like “Gulf of America” and "Lake America" at no extra charge. The company still uses internationally accepted names by default, he added.

"We do occasionally get requests for a map with an updated 'Gulf of America' label, but actually, more commonly are queries to ensure that body of water is labeled as Gulf of Mexico," Norrell said.

Globes, in theory, are trickier. "World globes are updated less frequently and are produced in fairly large production runs," Norrell said. "We're not aware of any makers that have updated their Gulf of Mexico labeling for world globes."

In states like Florida, where schools and state agencies are required to use maps and globes that include "Gulf of America" instead of "Gulf of Mexico," and with the possibility of similar legislation following this latest name change, Norrell said some educators may be opting to "wait it out" before making purchases.

That's the downside, but Norrell said the political attention on place names has also been good for the map business.

"For us, the downstream effect is mostly positive," Norrell added. "We get people thinking about maps, we get to inform people about maps, and the news cycle gives us an opportunity to talk about maps to the mainstream public."

Then there's the matter of digital maps.

Digital maps can be updated with a few clicks, although whether they choose to make the change to is a different matter: MapQuest, for example, has refused to. Apple and Google didn't immediately respond to questions from Business Insider about whether they'd be updating their maps.