Trump said at a rally on Saturday that the Atlantic or the Pacific could be renamed “Trump Ocean.” Critics online say the idea won’t last past his time in office.
Speaking at a rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, on Saturday, Trump suggested renaming either the Atlantic or the Pacific “Trump Ocean” or “Ocean of the Americas.”
“We’ve got the gulf. We’ve got a beautiful lake. Now, somebody said, you need a river,” he said. “We need a river. We need an ocean. We’ll call it ‘Trump Ocean’ or ‘Ocean of the Americas,’ something like that.”
“Before I get out, I think we should have an ocean. And we need a great river,” he added.
A gulf, a lake and a ‘no’ from a state
Trump has taken a liking to renaming things during his second term. He previously renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. He has also floated renaming New Mexico “New America.”
“So much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible State. Wow, I Love It!!!” he wrote on Truth Social. The state’s governor, however, dismissed the idea right away.
In August, after trade talks with Canada broke down, he signed an order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” Canada doesn’t have to accept the name, Google and Apple maps already show “Lake America,” although only to users in the US.
Meanwhile Canada is doing some renaming of their own. Ottawa City Council voted unanimously in August to take the first step toward renaming Trump Avenue, a residential street that has carried his name for about 25 years. “Taco Avenue,” a reference to the online acronym “Trump Always Chickens Out,” is among the suggestions and one of the front-runners.
The renamings won’t come for free
The mayor of Oswego, New York, has said updating signs and maps for Lake America would cost his city of 17,000 “several thousand dollars.”
New names don’t always last either. In May, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s rebranding of the Kennedy Center as the “Trump Kennedy Center” was illegal. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” the judge wrote. Crews took Trump’s name off the building in June.
“Trump Ocean” has most people thinknig it won’t last either, and instead the next president will change the names back. “He does understand the next President will reverse ALL these renamings…” one person wrote on X.
Others joked about it. “…on the newly renamed Planet Trump?” one asked, with another writing: “From ‘Pacific’ to ‘Antagonistic?’” and a third person even referenced the Reflecting pool fiasco from this summer by writing: “Somebody tell him that you can’t repaint the ocean.”
The reactions point to a broader difference between suggesting a name and making that name endure. Public usage depends on more than a single announcement. A proposal can generate immediate attention while leaving unresolved questions about acceptance, practical changes, and whether later decision-makers will retain it. Those questions are why the debate has extended beyond the phrase itself to the lasting effect of renaming a familiar place.