President Trump recently shared that Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, declined his suggestion to rename the Atlantic Ocean. Trump noted that Pichai believed changing the name of such a vast body of water, which borders numerous countries, would be impractical.
During a rally in South Carolina, the president recounted how he had a conversation with Pichai after Google had already adopted his proposed names for the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario — calling them the Gulf of America and Lake America.
“We were seriously considering the Atlantic Ocean, and I reached out to Google Maps, who are really quite good at this sort of thing,” Trump told his audience.
He described pitching the idea directly to Pichai, saying, “I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean. Can you handle it?”
According to Trump, Pichai firmly turned down the proposal. The Google CEO responded, saying, “No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it.” He explained that oceans were different since they encompass several nations.
Trump quoted Pichai as saying, “Please don’t ask us to do that.”
Despite the refusal, Trump praised both Pichai and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, calling them “totally brilliant guys.” He joked that they might still be shaken from the changes made to the Gulf.
“So I guess I’ll probably let it pass. Should I pass it?” Trump mused. “I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean, right?”
This isn’t the first time Trump has thrown out the idea of renaming oceanic bodies; earlier this month, he suggested at a rally in Tennessee that the Atlantic or Pacific could be called the “Trump Ocean” or “Ocean of the Americas.”
He has also mentioned renaming the Strait of Hormuz to “Trump Strait” and changing New Mexico to “New America.”
The discussion follows Google Maps adopting the names Gulf of America and Lake America for American users, in light of executive orders changing the federal designations for those bodies of water, while retaining the original names for other users worldwide.
Not all map services are on board with these changes; MapQuest famously tweeted on August 27 that they would not change Lake Ontario to Lake America, stating, “We’re not changing it.”
Google has not yet responded to requests for comments regarding Trump’s account of his conversation with Pichai.
