Donald Trump says Google CEO Sundar Pichai personally rejected his request to rename the Atlantic Ocean “Trump Ocean” on digital maps.
The former president, 78, disclosed the exchange during a campaign rally last week in Dalton, Georgia, where he told supporters he had directly appealed to the tech giant for the rebranding. Trump recalled that Pichai pushed back immediately when presented with the idea.
“I called Google Maps to change the name of the Atlantic Ocean to Trump Ocean. Sundar said, ‘No, no, no,'” Trump said at the rally. “He said, ‘Please don’t ask us to do that.'”
According to Trump’s account, Google cited the Atlantic Ocean’s span across multiple countries as the reason they could not comply. The president recalled the company’s response as blunt: “We’ve had it. That’s enough. We’re not doing any more.”
Trump added that he had even sent Google an image showing how “Trump Ocean” would appear on Maps, but the visual pitch failed to sway the company.
The Dalton rally revelation followed an earlier appearance this month in Clarksville, Tennessee, where Trump first floated the ocean renaming concept to supporters. At that event, he framed it as part of a broader naming agenda that already included the Gulf of Mexico becoming the “Gulf of America” and a Canadian lake taking on his name.
“So we’ve got the Gulf. We’ve got a beautiful lake. Now somebody you need a river. I don’t want to change the name of the Hudson River,” Trump told the Tennessee crowd. “That’s too much. Henry Hudson did a good job setting up that sucker a long time ago.”
He continued laying out his geographic wish list: “So we need a river and we need an ocean, so I was thinking of either the Atlantic or the Pacific. We’ll call it Trump Ocean or Ocean of the Americas.”
The former president made clear he wants the change enacted before leaving office, while explicitly ruling out renaming the Mississippi River. “We should have—before I get out, I think we should have a ocean or we need a great river,” he said. “Now I’m not changing the name of the Mississippi.”
The naming push comes as Trump traverses the country hosting rallies ahead of next month’s midterm elections, with the former president making frequent campaign stops to support Republican candidates. His remarks in both Tennessee and Georgia came during these political appearances, with the ocean proposal emerging as an apparent tangent from standard campaign fare.
The Clarksville rally marked the first public mention of the “Trump Ocean” concept, where he presented it as a logical extension of his previous geographic renaming efforts. The Gulf of Mexico redesignation to “Gulf of America” was previously enacted through executive action, though international recognition remains mixed.
Trump’s account of the Google rejection suggests he pursued the Atlantic Ocean renaming through direct corporate channels rather than governmental ones, approaching Pichai personally with the request. The specificity of his retelling—including the claimed image submission—indicates the proposal advanced beyond casual speculation.
Political observers have noted a practical limitation to Trump’s naming ambitions: any successor in the White House could reverse such designations, making the changes potentially temporary without broader institutional support.
Trump continues his midterm campaign schedule with additional rallies planned across multiple states.