Please Don’t Ask Us To Do That: Pichai Asks Trump To Not Rename Atlantic Ocean

WASHINGTON, DC – President Donald Trump has said he discussed renaming the Atlantic Ocean on Google Maps with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, but Pichai cautioned that oceans span multiple countries, prompting Trump to drop the idea.

Trump recounted the conversation at a midterm election rally in Clemson, South Carolina, on October 21 evening, while discussing his earlier moves to rename geographical features.

“So we seriously looked at the Atlantic Ocean, and I called Google Maps, who were really great with the lake,” Trump told supporters.

He praised Pichai and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, calling them “totally brilliant guys” and saying the company was still “rattled from the Gulf”.

“And I said, Sundar, I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean. Can you handle it?” Trump said, recalling Pichai’s response: “Ocean’s a difference, sir. You know, they cover a lot of… They cover really a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.”

Trump said he would probably abandon the idea before suggesting that the Pacific Ocean could be called the “American Ocean”.

“We’re going to call it the American Ocean. How do you think Europe would fit?” he said, adding that he would consider putting his name or America’s name only on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Trump also referred to the Strait of Hormuz as the “Trump Strait” while discussing tensions with Iran, questioning why it could not be renamed after the Gulf of Mexico had been renamed.

“I mean, we changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico. Why can’t we change this…” he said.

Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America through an executive order shortly after taking office in January 2025. Google Maps began displaying the new name for users in the US weeks later. Trump also told the rally that he had recently renamed a lake “Lake America”.

Pichai, who was born in Chennai, has met Trump several times, including at the president’s January 2025 inauguration and a White House dinner for technology executives in September 2025.

The rally at Clemson’s T. Ed Garrison Arena was part of Trump’s campaigning ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. (IANS)