US President Donald Trump has stated that Google has turned down his request to rename the Atlantic Ocean after himself or the United States. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, Trump revealed that he personally called Google CEO Sundar Pichai to discuss whether the tech giant could proceed with his proposal.
"I only like two oceans: the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. I am not willing to attach Trump or America to the name of any ocean other than these two. So we looked seriously at the Atlantic Ocean. Then I called Google Maps, which did a great job with the lake... though they are still a bit nervous about the gulf incident," Trump told the crowd.
Recalling the conversation, Trump said, "I said, Sundar, I am thinking about the Atlantic Ocean." He was referring to his previous executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America." During trade disputes between the US and Canada, Trump had also pushed hard to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America," even signing an executive order mandating federal agencies to use the new designation.
According to Trump, Pichai rejected this latest proposal outright. Describing the Google CEO's response, Trump said, "He said, no, no, no. I'm not doing this this time... Sir, oceans are different. They span across multiple countries. Please don't ask us to do this."
Trump concluded by indicating that he might drop the idea, asking the audience, "So I will probably back away from this proposal. Should I back away?"
