President Donald Trump revealed during a rally on October 21, 2026, that Google CEO Sundar Pichai discouraged him from trying to rename the Atlantic Ocean.
Trump had toyed with the idea after successfully changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, signing an Executive Order in January 2025, and signing another executive order on August 27, 2026, that directed all U.S. federal agencies to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” But re-naming an ocean is a different ballgame, he’s learned.
Trump Says He ‘Seriously’ Looked At Renaming the Atlantic Ocean
While many mapmakers, including Google Maps, have gone along with Trump’s changes, their bordering countries, Mexico and Canada, have not — and there’s no ability to ensure they use the names he chose.
During his rally in South Carolina, the president told supporters that he’d been “serious” about renaming the Atlantic Ocean, per USA Today, and that his father used to say he had the “greatest eye for location.” The names he was toying were “Trump Ocean” or “Ocean of the Americas.”
“I only like two oceans − the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean,” Trump said. “I’m not going to put either Trump or America on any other ocean but these two. So, we seriously looked at the Atlantic Ocean and I called Google Maps, who were really great with the Lake (America), and I spoke to a brilliant guy, Sundar (Pichai). He heads all of Google. He’s a brilliant guy.”
“No, no, no, this time I’m not doing it,” Trump told the crowd. “(Pichai) said ‘Oceans are different, sir. They cover a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.'”
Multiple countries have shorelines on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and there is no international authority that could require them to adopt a new U.S.-designated name, per USA Today.
“So, I’ll probably pass,” Trump concluded, inviting the audience to share their thoughts. “I think, let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean.”
Trump Has Set His Sights on Renaming New Mexico
Trump first brought up the idea of renaming an ocean during a rally on October 10 in Clarksville, Tennessee, telling that audience, “We’ve got the gulf. We’ve got a beautiful lake. Now, somebody said, ‘You need a river. We need a river.’ We need an ocean!”
Google has previously said that it will adhere to official government names of destinations within a country. The “Lake America” and “Gulf of America” name changes apply only to Google Maps in the U.S. and in some regions, “both applicable names will be shown.”
While oceans may not get renamed by Trump, other destinations and monuments seem to be fair game. His administration returned Fort Liberty to its former name, Fort Bragg, and changed the highest peak in the U.S. from Denali back to Mount McKinley.
The president’s latest idea is changing the state of New Mexico’s name to New America, urging state leaders on October 19, via a social media post, to make the change.
“New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America,” the president wrote. “We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!”
Democratic Senator Ben Ray Luján scoffed at the president’s suggestion, writing in his own social media post that his state’s name “dates back hundreds of years, long before the United States even existed.”
“It carries generations of history, culture, and rich traditions that continue to shape who we are,” Luján wrote on October 19. “We are New Mexicans. We’re proud of our name, proud of our home, and we’re keeping both. Long after Donald Trump is out of office, we’ll still be New Mexico.”
Trump Says Google CEO Urged Him Not to Rename the Atlantic Ocean: ‘Please Don’t Ask Us to Do That’