First it was the Gulf of Mexico, then Lake Ontario. Now, U.S. President Donald Trump says that next, it might be a whole ocean's turn.
On Monday, Trump proposed at a rally in Mississippi to rename the Atlantic Ocean as the "American Ocean," stating that he believed "Europe would be very happy" with this move.
He first proposed this idea at a rally in Tennessee in early October, where he suggested renaming the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean as the “Trump Ocean” or “American Ocean.” At a rally in South Carolina in mid-October, he said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai told him that it was not possible to change the names of the oceans on Google Maps because these oceans involve many countries.
The White House referred the inquiries from "Business Insider" to the relevant statements of the President.
This is not the first time that Trump has proposed or implemented a name change during his second, and non-consecutive, presidential term.
In August, he signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario – one of the Great Lakes, located along the borders of Canada and the United States – as “Lake America.” He also renamed a bay and a mountain, and once contemplated renaming a river, calling New Mexico “New America,” as well as renaming the Strait of Hormuz as the “Trump Strait.”
In addition to naming multiple government projects and buildings after Trump himself, here are some other locations that have been renamed by the government to date.
January 2025: Trump to rename the Gulf of Mexico and the Dernary.
On his first day back at the White House, Trump signed an executive order titled "Restoring the Names That Reflect American Greatness."
This command instructs two actions: to rename the Gulf of Mexico as "Gulf of America," and to restore Denali in Alaska—the highest peak in North America—to its previous federal name, "Mount McKinley." Former President Barack Obama had restored the mountain's original name from the Alaska Native language in 2015, which means "the tall one" in the Koyukon language.
Trump's executive order acknowledges that "action by Congress is required to establish the new name in public law," but it requires federal agencies to use the new name during the transition period.
Since then, both Google and Apple have updated their map functions to reflect this name change. However, The Associated Press continues to refer to this body of water as the Gulf of Mexico, which has led to the White House prohibiting The Associated Press from participating in certain news events.
From February to June 2025: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overturned the name changes of 9 army bases.
In 2023, the Biden administration changed the names of Army bases that were named after Confederate leaders to those of Medal of Honor recipients, military leaders, and other war heroes, including women and people of color.
In 2025, Hegseth revoked these changes through a series of orders, restoring the names of A.P Fort Hilburg, Fort Benningburg, Fort Picktburg, Fort Lee, Fort Gordonburg, Fort Hoodburg, Fort Polkburg, Fort Ruckburg, and Fort Prague.
August 2026: Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America".
This change occurred amid escalating tensions in the trade war with Canada. In August, after negotiations broke down, the United States imposed new tariffs of 50% on Canadian goods worth approximately $20 billion, prompting Canada to announce retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% as well. Subsequently, Trump retracted some of these tariffs.
Before the issuance of the executive order in August, Canadians were already calling for a boycott of American goods and travel to the United States. In his response on the X platform regarding the renaming of Lake Ontario, Carney stated that the United States "is changing."
“Their trade relations, their foreign policies, their national monuments, the names of their water bodies,” he wrote, “Canadian men and women also know that things must be called by their proper names, and this lake is called Lake Ontario—so today, and always will be.”
Google Maps and Apple Maps have displayed new names for users in the United States. This change is only applicable at the federal level within the United States.
At that time, Trump also proposed to name an entire ocean after the United States – and he has recently reiterated this idea at several rallies. Despite Trump claiming that Pichai said “no” to the president when asked to change the name of the Atlantic Ocean on Google Maps, he still insists on this proposal.
“I’m not doing it this time,” Trump said at a rally in South Carolina, referring to Pichai’s response. “The oceans are different, sir. They cover many countries. Please don’t let us do this.”
