President Donald Trump says Google Maps discouraged him from renaming the Atlantic Ocean to Trump Ocean.
Boasting a list of the all the locations he has renamed and iterating he does not intend to rename either the Hudson River in New York or the Mississippi River, Trump during a rally in Clemson, South Carolina on Wednesday, Oct. 22, said he was keen on renaming an ocean until Google CEO Sundar Pichai
told him not to."I only like two oceans − the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean," Trump said. "I'm not going to put either Trump or America on any other ocean but these two. So, we seriously looked at the Atlantic Ocean and I called Google Maps, who were really great with the Lake (America), and I spoke to a brilliant guy, Sundar (Pichai). He
heads all of Google. He's a brilliant guy."
Joking, Google is still "rattled from the Gulf (of America)," Trump said he pitched his plan to rename the ocean and asked them if they can "handle it."
"No, no, no, this time I'm not doing it, he (Pichai) said," Trump said. "He said 'Oceans are different, sir. They cover a lot of countries. Please don't ask us to do that.'"
"So, I'll probably pass," Trump said, before asking the crowd their thoughts. "I think let's keep it the Atlantic Ocean."
'We need an ocean'
Speaking at a rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, on Oct. 10, Trump had suggested renaming either the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.
"We've got the gulf. We've got a beautiful lake," Trump told supporters. "Now, somebody said, 'You need a river. We need a river.' We need an ocean."
Trump then proposed either "Trump Ocean" or "Ocean of the Americas" as possible names.
"No, we have to," he said. "We should have, before I get out, we should have an ocean and we need a great river."
Trump, in his latest speech, explained he was interested in renaming an ocean because "I'm very, I was always high-end."
"My father said that kid has the greatest eye for location," he said, referring to himself.
Could Trump rename an ocean?
A president can direct how U.S. government agencies refer to geographic features through executive action. But any name change would generally apply only to federal government usage and would not be binding internationally.
That's especially true for the Atlantic and Pacific, which border multiple countries and have long-established names recognized around the world.
There is no international authority that could require other countries to adopt a new U.S.-designated name.
Google Maps on name changes
Google, in an earlier statement to USA TODAY, said that it adheres to official government names when it comes to geographical names within a country.
The navigation service has previously updated the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and Lake Ontario as Lake America in the U.S as part of the "long-standing practice."
“We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” Google had said.
The Geographic Names Information System, which is under the United States Geological Survey, provides the names used in Google Maps.
However, the name change applies to the United States, and Google, in its statement, said that, depending on regions, "both applicable names will be shown."
“When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name," Google said. "Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too."
An example of this practice is the Sea of Japan, or the East Sea, a name disputed between Japan and South Korea. In Google Maps in the United States, the sea is designated as the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
A growing list of Trump renamings
The proposal to change the name of an ocean was part of Trump's push to rebrand prominent geographic landmarks.
In addition to Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico changing to Lake America and the Gulf of America respectively, Trump's administration restored Fort Liberty's former name, Fort Bragg, and changed the nation's highest peak from Denali back to Mount McKinley.
More recently, he suggested New Mexico change its name to "New America," arguing the new "name would add great value and prestige to the State."
"New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America," the president wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday, Oct. 19. “We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!"
However, a president cannot simply rename a state through a presidential executive order, USA TODAY previously reported. New Mexico's name is established in the state's constitution and changing that name would require the state to do so, with leaders moving through their own process.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Kinsey Crowley, Fernando Cervantes Jr. / USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Google Maps said no to Trump renaming the Atlantic Ocean
