Trump Atlantic Ocean rename was the latest branding idea floated by former President Donald Trump, who told supporters in South Carolina that Google declined to reflect such a change on its maps.
Speaking at a rally Wednesday, Trump said he had considered affixing either his name or “America” to one of the two oceans bordering the United States, the Atlantic and the Pacific. “I’m not going to put either Trump or America on any other ocean but these two,” he told the crowd.
Trump said he then contacted Google to ask about updating Google Maps to reflect a new name.
According to Trump, Google had previously updated its U.S. labels for the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario to Gulf of America and Lake America following executive orders from the president.
Trump recounted a call with CEO Sundar Pichai, whom he praised along with Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Describing his pitch, Trump said he asked Pichai, “Sundar, I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean. Can you handle it?”
Trump quoted Pichai as responding, “No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it. Oceans are different, sir. They cover really a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.” Trump then told the audience he would likely drop the idea, adding, “I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was not Trump’s first foray into renaming geography. At a Tennessee rally in early October, he suggested “Trump Ocean” or “Ocean of the Americas” for either the Atlantic or the Pacific.
He has also floated renaming a river, calling New Mexico “New America,” and rebranding the Strait of Hormuz as the “Trump Strait.”
While those remain proposals, Google Maps adopted “Gulf of America” and “Lake America” for U.S. users after federal records were updated, Trump said. Users in Mexico and Canada still see the original names for the gulf and the lake.
Elsewhere, the original names appear with Trump’s labels in brackets.
The variations have posed complications for global mapmakers. Joseph Wright, CEO of Replogle Globes, said after the lake change that international acceptance is a factor because some nations may not recognize the new terms.
“We sell globes worldwide,” Wright said.
For now, Trump’s Atlantic proposal appears to have stalled before any change on Google Maps.
Trump Atlantic Ocean rename and mapping implications
Trump’s account underscored the difference between domestic naming changes and labels for international bodies of water, which involve multiple countries and standards bodies. As described at the rally, Google’s reluctance centered on the broader global footprint of ocean names.
The episode comes amid broader questions about how major technology platforms handle politically sensitive decisions, an issue that has also surfaced in coverage of Prosecutors allege Saudi government support for ex-OpenAI staffer.