Sept. 6, 2026

“We’re Not Changing It”: Mapquest Hits Number1 On Apple Store App For First Time In 30 Years

“We’re Not Changing It”: Mapquest Hits Number1 On Apple Store App For First Time In 30 Years

What’s in a name? Apparently everything to President Trump, who has been changing the names of buildings, mountains and bodies of water. His latest executive order has renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America and one mapping company has refused to follow suit. Mapquest did not follow Google and Apple Maps, and instead tweeted that it would not change the name. That has led to hundreds of thousands of downloads and renewed interest in the 3 decades old company.

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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Saturday.

00:00:03
Speaker 2: No, it ain't.

00:00:04
Speaker 1: It's Sunday, September 6th. You know what? No, we could have started over, and you all never would have known that I made that mistake. But we're going to keep it rolling because, yes, we do all of these live to tape. So, yes, it is Sunday, September 6th. I misspoke about the date. And a lot of people seem to be misspeaking about the name of a particular lake in the United States right now. Well, it's on the border of the U.S. and Canada. Is it Lake Ontario or is it Lake America? It depends on, certainly. Who You Ask These Days. And with that, welcome to this Sunday, September 6th episode of Amy and TJ. Well, this was kind of a dismissive story. Trump's renaming something again. But a very fun part of this story became the very first company we probably ever used to help us get directions. You had to go to MapQuest. You had to put in both addresses. It gives it to you. You had to print it out. And go on your road trip. That's old school. But now MapQuest is back, baby.

00:01:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is back. I didn't know they were still around, I'll be honest.

00:01:08
Speaker 1: I actually did. Really? I used their website.

00:01:10
Speaker 2: That's incredible. All right. Yes, I used to go onto MapQuest. It was without a doubt. And this, we're talking 20 years ago, printing it out, doing all those things. But now MapQuest became, this week, the number one app on Apple's App Store for the first time in the company's 30-year history. Why, you ask? Because they refused to change the name of Lake Ontario.

00:01:36
Speaker 1: Isn't that something? Something that simple, and they weren't mean about it. We'll share what they said, and you might have seen this, but Robes, this is huge. A company that's been around 30 years. Robes, who are they behind? Google Maps and even Apple has its own map and all this stuff. People use those for their GPS. I did not know that MapQuest did have an app. Makes sense that they would. But Robes, to think that it shot up to number one. It said something to me about the country. This didn't seem like such a divisive issue. It seemed like everybody kind of understood this was ridiculous and not something we should be focused on.

00:02:16
Speaker 2: Yes, because, and look, to have President Trump sign another executive order changing the name of another body of water to something with America on it, Look, I understand a lot of people might applaud that, but I do think a lot of other Americans might cringe at that because, yes, when you go around the world and you travel and you're an American, everything, frankly, this administration does or however we do it, especially when it's a response to other countries or us being more important or the number one or just this mentality that Americans are thought to have, yeah, it's a little embarrassing. So to see a company, an American company, stand up to what some people might believe is a bullying tactic, a global bullying tactic. If we don't like somebody, we'll just change the name to America. And so, yes, to have MapQuest go online and just say, we're not changing it. I believe that was what.

00:03:07
Speaker 1: They said on X. That's the exact quote. Say it again.

00:03:08
Speaker 2: We're not changing it.

00:03:10
Speaker 1: That's it. And they became number one.

00:03:12
Speaker 2: Hundreds of thousands of people downloaded MapQuest's app. who didn't, like me, even know it existed. And that's a pretty cool thing. And then they followed up a little bit later and said, I thought this was funny, we're not changing the name of Lake Ontario. Name it whatever you want at your leisure. And then they included a map, Lake, are we doing this again? Just they're having fun with it.

00:03:34
Speaker 1: But they're not being mean. I don't know who are their social media person, but this is what we often have to do, what we should do. You nail it without being nasty.

00:03:45
Speaker 2: They.

00:03:45
Speaker 1: nailed what everybody's thinking. Are we really doing this? We're at war with Iran. Lake America just because we disagree with the nicest people in the world how do you pick a.

00:04:00
Speaker 2: Fight with Canada yeah I guess it'd be yeah the next next up you Irish people you're so awful they're so nice Canadian those actually we've just been those are the last two countries I believe we've been oh my god outside of America and it was Ireland and Canada and we're like they're the two nicest least offensive people the Irish are so hospitable the Canadians are just Nice. They're not here to upset anybody, to rock the boat. Why you got to pick a fight with Canada?

00:04:26
Speaker 1: Okay, who is listening? And I'm trying to, I always say, leave room for this. But Robes, who is proud? Who is, have you heard people really raising the flag for, hell yes, we should change the name. It shouldn't be Lake Ontario because Canada rules. did something to us offensively.

00:04:44
Speaker 2: I don't know who those people are. If they're out there, I'm sure they are. I haven't met them or spoken to them, but it's true. Like, why are we picking fights with our neighbors as well? Like, you know the whole notion, like, don't shit where you eat? Like, these are our neighbors, Mexico and Canada. So now instead of the Gulf of Mexico, we have the Gulf of America. Now instead of Lake Ontario, we have Lake America. Why are we doing this to the people who we actually trade the most with in the world?

00:05:09
Speaker 1: And....

00:05:11
Speaker 2: Share a border with. Like, why pick fights with those people?

00:05:14
Speaker 1: I'm trying to leave space and trying to understand, and I just haven't heard the argument from anyone other than the president, why this is necessary, why we should do it, why it's important, why it should be a focus. It seems so incredibly petty. Childish? It does. Yes. This is major. He signed an executive order, folks. The president signed an executive order after... Guess we're in a trade war with Canada and a real war with Iran, but sign an executive order changing the name to Lake America from Lake Ontario. Now, Robes, we should say, he can change how the United States is supposed to use it, but you're not officially changing it for the rest of the world. Nobody else has under any obligation to start referring to it as Lake America, and they have made clear in Canada they're not going to do so. We should say that.

00:06:02
Speaker 2: But.

00:06:04
Speaker 1: There are companies like Apple, like Google, who have these maps, Robes, who can make a decision to whether or not they're going to update their maps. Take me back to Gulf of America, Gulf of Mexico. Did everybody get on board immediately? There was some beef.

00:06:19
Speaker 2: If I recall, I thought it was the AP that took the stand. Yes. And they then got banned from the Oval Office. Yes. They were not allowed to send a reporter or a photographer into the Oval Office because they refused to acknowledge in their writings the Gulf of America. They kept referring to it as the Gulf of Mexico. So yes, there is pressure there. that the administration has put on organizations, news organizations, and mapping companies or Internet companies to follow what Trump has decreed the new name is.

00:06:53
Speaker 1: So remind me then on this one. I think Google was first.

00:06:57
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:06:57
Speaker 1: They changed it pretty immediately. Apple was a little slow on the Lake of America. And yes, AP reported that the president didn't. No, no, no. They didn't report. Bergman, the interior secretary, flat out went on Fox News and said, yes, the president called Apple. and pressured them and asked them to do this. And sure enough, they were a little late, but they did do it. MapQuest did not. So they put out their statements, wrote, they got everybody's attention. They had the follow-up you just talked about. And then the last one they did here, at least far as social media, I thought was the funniest and most well done.

00:07:31
Speaker 2: Yes. So this is a few days later. They put this out on X. We are aware that Lake Ontario is being correctly labeled on our map. Hilarious.

00:07:40
Speaker 1: We got to hire this person.

00:07:41
Speaker 2: It's perfect. It's the right tone.

00:07:42
Speaker 1: That's perfect.

00:07:43
Speaker 2: It's the right tone. And I like what you pointed out. It's not mean.

00:07:47
Speaker 1: No.

00:07:48
Speaker 2: It's not angry. It's not accusatory. It's just simply stated and perfectly put.

00:07:54
Speaker 1: And I assume, well, obviously, that we get some pushback from some MAGA folks and some folks on the right, Trump supporters. And that's how they answered them. Yes, we're getting your messages. And yes, we are aware that we have correctly labeled. You know I respect snark. I respect petty. This is high level stuff. I love this.

00:08:15
Speaker 2: And yet it still came off as kind. It did.

00:08:19
Speaker 1: Thank you for the heads up. Thank you. We are aware. We did notice ourselves. It is correctly labeled. Good job. I'm going to download their app now. I'm actually going to get it. So Canada initially, Robes, I thought this was important to give a little history. So we're changing the name of Lake Ontario according to President Trump because we just got pissed at Canada and they have an Ontario up there. So we don't want a lake here. It's called Ontario because of that.

00:08:43
Speaker 2: Because we're not going to be doing business with Ontario, I believe is what he said.

00:08:48
Speaker 1: We're America.

00:08:48
Speaker 2: Because we're Americans.

00:08:49
Speaker 1: I love when you say that. But this was a statement from Carney, the prime minister. Again, I thought this, you know what, this is so typical Canadian. It was kind. It just gives you a little history.

00:09:02
Speaker 2: The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontario, which appropriately means the lake is beautiful, the lake is big. The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario. Then, now, and always.

00:09:37
Speaker 1: He made us look stupid.

00:09:39
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:09:39
Speaker 1: Like you don't understand the history. The name isn't Canadian. It was indigenous peoples that named it before you had a country and we had a country. The name has just been that. He hit us with history. We look stupid.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: Absolutely.

00:09:54
Speaker 1: We. Yes, I know.

00:09:55
Speaker 2: Yes, I know.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: But we as Americans.

00:09:58
Speaker 2: We do. And then Ontario actually hit back. This seems a little childish, but it's kind of funny. They ended up erecting a massive billboard sign right outside of Lake Ontario. And it just reads, I think in French and in English, Lake Ontario now and always. Yes.

00:10:21
Speaker 1: And that's it. How do you... I mean, what are you supposed to do, Robes? That's how they responded. And I think that probably should be the end of it with the president. Here's the other thing. I wonder if he's going to go after Robes. There are, I think, a dozen cities in the United States named Ontario. I believe we have an Ontario, New York, don't we? I know there's an Ontario, California. They're all... What should we do with them? Well, and as.

00:10:47
Speaker 2: As the Canadian prime minister pointed out, it's an indigenous name. And we are a land that was founded by indigenous peoples that we.

00:10:55
Speaker 1: Stole it from.

00:10:56
Speaker 2: So, I mean, look, again, we could go back to the Denali thing, too. It's like some of these names aren't actually from governments. They're from the peoples who came before us. Should we not honor that?

00:11:08
Speaker 1: That you mentioned Denali. Stay here, folks. We will, yes, bring back up Denali. And we will tell you all the other things the president has named or renamed. Yes, some of them have his name in it.

00:11:21
Speaker 2: We're still trying to rename.

00:11:22
Speaker 1: But things we're trying to rename. And also the other two very big things he says he wants to rename. On one of them he says he's just joking, though. Is he?

00:11:35
Speaker 2: Is he?

00:11:35
Speaker 1: We don't buy it. All right, we continue here on Amy and TJ. Was he joking, Ropes? He wants to name an ocean after America. Was he just joking on that one?

00:11:51
Speaker 2: He might be joking, but when he says things, I tend to believe that there is some truth to it. So, yes, he said, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both. That's scary because I can't say for sure that he is kidding.

00:12:11
Speaker 1: America Ocean?

00:12:13
Speaker 2: Oh, my God.

00:12:15
Speaker 1: The America Atlantic. What would you call it?

00:12:18
Speaker 2: The America Ocean.

00:12:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned.

00:12:22
Speaker 2: The Ocean of America.

00:12:24
Speaker 1: Maybe. He's just joking, though, right? I hope. The other one he mentioned, the Strait of Hormuz.

00:12:32
Speaker 2: Trump Strait.

00:12:32
Speaker 1: Didn't he put out an AI thing of that?

00:12:35
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe he did. And then he did say he was joking on that one. Yeah. Because that would be, like, impossible. Impossible.

00:12:43
Speaker 1: Or not. Who laughed the most when they heard that? The Iranian leadership, probably. Oh, of course. But the other stuff, Robes, the most famous one... Actually, let's start with Denali in Alaska, right?

00:12:54
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:12:55
Speaker 1: Changed it back to Mount McKinley. It was originally Denali. It was changed to McKinley. Was it Obama that changed it back to Denali, which.

00:13:06
Speaker 2: Back to the indigenous people. Yes.

00:13:07
Speaker 1: And then Trump came back in and put it back to McKinley. So that's where we are now. So next administration.

00:13:13
Speaker 2: It would be back to Denali. Look, it's funny. Anyone who likes to hike, and I had this notion, I think I've let it go, to hike the seven summits. Denali is one of them and probably one of the more intimidating ones other than Everest. And it's always just been Denali, Denali, Denali for hikers, for folks who are adventurous. To think that you.

00:13:31
Speaker 1: McKinley, baby. What?

00:13:33
Speaker 2: No, I can't say Mount McKinley. I still call it Denali, and I just have to wait out a few more years.

00:13:38
Speaker 1: That was one of those things, Rogue, where it seems like something is being taken away from a minority group on some of these. So the most famous one, of course, the Trump Kennedy Center. We don't know what's going to ultimately happen, but he put his name in front of that. Rogue, we forget. The Department of Defense.

00:13:55
Speaker 2: Department of War.

00:13:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, they call it that, even though Congress has to officially change it. But this is what they refer to it as. You've mentioned the Gulf of Mexico already. The Institute of Peace in D.C. Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace is what they gave that name. You know about the Trump class of battleships. And then a lot of our military bases, they put back to the old names that honor members of the Confederacy. So there's been a lot of name changing roads.

00:14:25
Speaker 2: So Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg.

00:14:28
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:14:28
Speaker 2: There's a bunch of those. And there are a bunch of ships that paid homage to either gay leaders or black leaders that they have unnamed, basically. And so they've taken away names from DEI greats because I don't know why.

00:14:44
Speaker 1: In their words, DEI greats.

00:14:45
Speaker 2: Yes. I mean, yes, that's fair. I would never say that. They were all remarkable folks in and of themselves, but because they were minorities, or they say, I don't know, what's the idea behind that they were given some sort of special honor or special privilege because they were not like the others?

00:15:02
Speaker 1: They defer to ropes. This is what DEI, this is the argument all the time, that only a black person, if you are in a position of high rank or authority or power, you only got it because of a blessing that was given to you by a white person because you were a charity case. We all do this and we've experienced this. You're the token. There was a kid, actually a character on South Park who was black. They called him Token. His name is Token on the show. This is just a thing, but it's being institutionalized now. We are actually able to say, if you are a minority, you are only there because of a DEI policy. So we're getting rid of the DEI policies and we're getting rid of minorities.

00:15:39
Speaker 2: And getting rid of any honoring of said minorities.

00:15:43
Speaker 1: Because it was not earned. It's only there because you're black or because you're this or because you're that or because you're a woman. That's the idea behind a lot of that.

00:15:52
Speaker 2: What's in a name?

00:15:53
Speaker 1: Apparently, everything. That sucks, man.

00:15:55
Speaker 2: Yes, but you know what? These can all be undone. That's the thing.

00:15:59
Speaker 1: And look, this- We don't want to do that. Go back and forth. We're going to change the name of the Trump-Kennedy Center when there's a Democrat. It's expensive to do this, too. And back and forth. I mean, just- So, it's Lake- Whatever the hell you want to call it.

00:16:11
Speaker 2: Lake America.

00:16:12
Speaker 1: Whatever you want to call it.

00:16:13
Speaker 2: Or Lake Ontario.

00:16:15
Speaker 1: But tune in this week. We'll see what else gets changed. But as always, we appreciate you folks on this Sunday, September the 6th. I'm TJ. On behalf of my dear Amy Robach, we'll talk soon.