Trump wanted to change the name of the Atlantic to "Ocean Trump". Google said no

The Gulf of America is here. The Lake of America, too. The ocean was missing — and here, if you believe the president of the United States, Google Maps yet stopped nodding.

Donald Trump told supporters at a South Carolina election rally that he called Google with the thought of changing the name of the Atlantic. He heard that the oceans are different due to the fact that they border on many countries. According to the Washington Post, he was to be personally told by the company's head, Sundar Pichai. Trump added that he would most likely give up, but he could take care of the Pacific.

He presented a akin communicative a fewer days earlier at a rally in Georgia. In the account of this speech, the dpa agency wrote about Google's “representatives” to whom the president was to propose that the Atlantic or Pacific be renamed “Ocean Trump”. As noted by dpa and CNN, Trump then said that he was joking, although it was not the worst of his ideas.

Google did not confirm the conversation described by the "Washington Post". Dpa besides stated in her earlier account that it was not known whether the exchange of views presented by the president actually took place.

American Map

Let's go back to the background. In January 2025 Trump introduced the name Gulf of America to American naming, and Google Maps changed the designation for users in the US. The same was actual of Lake Ontario, which in August 2026 the president ordered to be renamed in American records to "Lake America". The ideas besides reached out to the Strait of Ormuz, for which he proposed a name from his own name.

The refusal on the ocean so sounds almost like the last bastion of cartographic moderation. With 1 exception: the argument that the ocean "borders with many countries" does not explain everything. The Gulf of Mexico besides borders more than 1 country. Google then solved it in its own way: U.S. users see the Gulf of America, Mexico — the Gulf of Mexico, and in another countries both names.

One can ask why specified a solution could not be applied to the ocean. However, the example of the bay itself does not prejudge that there would be no another obstacles. Without Google, it is not known whether the problem was actually about maps, whether we know primarily anecdote prepared for the rally.

Who's holding whose hand?

The irony is that this is not a paper or a company message, but is the main origin of information about refusal. We have the president's communicative of how he was opposed by a company that had previously included the names of the bay and the lake on the maps.

There are besides technological relations between the giant and the White House. Pichai participated in the inauguration of Trump's second term, and Google donated $1 million to the inaugural fund, reported Reuters. This does not prove anything about the ocean, but gives stories of a firm “no” additional political context.

So for now, the "Ocean Trump" remains in the presidential story. But the President, who has already “recovered” the bay and the lake, inactive has plenty of water in stock.

Sources: ‘Washington Post’; dpa