Google's Sundar Pichai Rejected My Proposal To Rename Atlantic Ocean To 'Trump Ocean': Donald Trump Says
· Free Press Journal
US President Donald Trump has claimed that he considered renaming the Atlantic Ocean the “Trump Ocean,” but dropped the idea after Google CEO Sundar Pichai refused the request, saying oceans span multiple countries. The remarks were made at a rally and have not been independently confirmed by Google or Pichai.
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'Trump Ocean'
Trump made these remarks during a rally in South Carolina. He said he contacted Google Maps to explore changing the Atlantic Ocean’s name and raised the idea directly with Pichai. According to his account, Pichai responded, “No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it,” and explained that oceans were different because “they cover a lot of countries.”
Trump then said he would likely abandon the proposal, “So, I’ll probably pass. Should I pass? I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean, right?”
'Large Data Centers Should Pay Communities A Dividend': Donald Trump SaysPacific Ocean also considered
The president indicated that his interest was limited to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, saying he would not attach 'Trump' or 'America' to any other ocean. He also floated calling the Pacific the 'American Ocean', before joking about how Europe would fit into such a name.
Trump praised Pichai and Google co-founder Sergey Brin as “totally brilliant guys” while recounting the alleged exchange.
Why Google resisted
Unlike a domestic geographic feature, an ocean is shared by many countries, making a unilateral name change far more contentious. Google has previously said that it updates Maps to reflect changes in official government sources - specifically the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) for US names.
'He Is A Monster': Trump Jokes With Google CEO Sundar Pichai At White House MeetingThat policy was visible in Google’s handling of Lake Ontario. After GNIS formally changed the US name to 'Lake America', Google said US users would see “Lake America,” Canadian users would continue to see “Lake Ontario,” and users elsewhere would see both names.
Trump’s comments come amid his administration’s broader effort to rename geographic features, including the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” and Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for US government and mapping purposes.