President Donald Trump considered adding the Atlantic Ocean to his growing list of American-named geographic features, but said Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai discouraged the idea.
Trump Considered Renaming the Atlantic Ocean
Speaking at a rally at Clemson University in South Carolina on Tuesday evening, Trump said he wanted to name more major bodies of water after America, Variety reported on Thursday.
“We have a lake. And we have a gulf. Now we need a river and we need an ocean,” Trump told the crowd.
He added that he would only consider renaming the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, saying, “I’m not gonna put either ‘Trump’ or ‘America’ on any other ocean but these two.”
Trump said he had seriously considered renaming the Atlantic Ocean and contacted Pichai to ask whether Google Maps could accommodate the change.
According to Trump, he asked the Google CEO, “Sundar, I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean. Can you handle it?”
Pichai pushed back, explaining that oceans differ from other geographic features because they span multiple countries.
“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 recalled Pichai saying.
Trump said the conversation had made him reconsider the proposal, adding that he would “probably pass” on renaming the Atlantic Ocean.
The White House and Google did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.
Google Maps Reflects Trump’s Previous Name Changes
The proposal follows two other naming changes highlighted by Trump. In 2025, he moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
In August 2026, amid a trade dispute with Canada, he ordered Lake Ontario to be called Lake America.
Google Maps displays the Trump-designated names for the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario to users in the U.S., while retaining the more familiar names in parentheses in search results.
However, changing a name in U.S. government records does not automatically make it internationally recognized, particularly when multiple countries share a geographic feature.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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