Globe and map makers are struggling with a problem typical of the Trump era: what do you do when politics keeps changing the map?
President Donald Trump has renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America” was declared by executive order Thursday, more than a year after the Gulf of Mexico was dubbed the “Gulf of America.”
This step confuses some makers of physical maps and globes.
Joseph C. Wright, the CEO of Illinois-based Replogle Globes, said his company has weathered changes on the world map throughout its 96-year history, from the fall of the Soviet Union to African country name changes. Still, geopolitical uncertainty translates into uncertainty for business, he said.
“As long as a change is underway, it will create uncertainty for buyers around the world, who may want to delay their purchases until a decision is made,” Wright said.
The problem won’t go away now that Trump has signed the executive order, he said. “The issue of international acceptance is also a factor as some countries may not accept it,” Wright said. “We sell globes worldwide.”
After Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico in January 2025, Britain, Mexico and China were among the countries that rejected the Gulf of Mexico change. Gulf of America. It also led to a legal dispute between Mexico and Google. This time, Wright expects some countries will again refuse to accept a US-ordered name change.
“The political uncertainty surrounding such changes affects the timing of purchases,” he said, “as a change in presidential administrations in just under two and a half years could result in a return to the previous names, or other additional changes.”
Other globe makers have a simpler solution to this cartographic conundrum: ignore Trump.
Chris Adams, a globemaker for about 20 years and founder of Britain’s Lander & May Globemakers, told Business Insider that Lake America’s name change would have “absolutely no effect on us.”
“It’s totally irrelevant,” he added.
Read more about tensions between Canada and the US:
“We continually update our globes to include name changes, but take our cue from the United Nations and not from the whims of a mad man,” he said. “The Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario will remain this way until we have proper access to them.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Leave it to the customer
The owner of a Washington-based company manufacturer of globes and mapsmeanwhile says he leaves it up to the customer.
Paul Norrell, owner of Seattle-based 1-World Globes & Maps, which has been in business for about 27 years, told Business Insider that customers can request updates like “Gulf of America” and “Lake America” at no additional cost because the company prints the wall maps to order. The company still uses internationally accepted names by default, he added.
“We occasionally get requests for a map with an updated ‘Gulf of America’ label, but actually more often they are requests to get the water labeled as the Gulf of Mexico,” Norrell said.
Globes are trickier in theory. “Globes are updated less frequently and are produced in fairly large production runs,” Norrell said. “We are not aware of any makers who have updated their labeling in the Gulf of Mexico for globes.”
In states like Florida, where schools and government agencies are required to use maps and globes that say “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico,” and with the possibility of similar legislation following this latest name change, Norrell said some teachers are choosing to “wait and see” 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 overwhelmingly positive,” Norrell added. “We get people thinking about maps, we can educate people about maps, and the news cycle gives us an opportunity to talk to the mainstream audience about maps.”
Then there’s the matter of digital maps.
Digital maps can be updated with a few clicks, but whether they want to make the change is another matter: MapQuestfor example, has refused this. Apple and Google did not immediately respond to questions from Business Insider about whether they would update their maps.
