After renaming a gulf and a great lake, President Donald Trump now has his sights set on an ocean.
At a rally in Clarksville, Tenn., on Saturday evening, Trump suggested the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean could be renamed in the country’s—or his—honor.
“Before I get out, I think we should have an ocean,” Trump said. “We call it ‘Trump Ocean’ or ‘Ocean of the Americas,’ something like that.”
The two oceans are international bodies of water that span many countries’ jurisdictions as well as the high seas.
The President has executive authority to direct U.S. geographic naming authorities to adopt different names for federal government use, which would make those names the standard across federal agencies. Other countries and private companies would not be required to follow suit, although private mapping services including Google Maps and Apple Maps have previously changed their official labels for certain geographic features for U.S. users in accordance with Trump’s orders.
Trump also said that “we need a great river” to rename, but he ruled out either the Hudson River or the Mississippi River.
“He did a good job of sailing up that sucker a long time ago,” Trump said, referring to explorer Henry Hudson, for whom the river running through Trump’s home state of New York was named.
Trump said he would leave the Mississippi River’s name alone because of support for him in the state. “I love Mississippi. We won that state by so much,” he said.
Trump appeared at the rally to campaign for Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate for Tennessee governor, and Sen. Bill Hagerty, who is seeking reelection in the November midterm elections. Turning to the Senate race in Michigan, one of several states that has seen a progressive victory in its Democratic primary, Trump called the Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, “Mohammed.”
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“Somebody said, ‘His name isn’t Mohammed. It’s Abdul,’” Trump said. “I’m the President. I can call him whatever the hell I want.”
Renaming things
Trump has shown a fondness for renaming geographic features.
In January 2025, he signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use “Gulf of America” in place of the Gulf of Mexico and restoring “Mount McKinley” as the federal name for Alaska’s highest peak, also known as Denali.
The renaming of the gulf set off a dispute with Mexico, which argued the U.S. had no authority to rename the entire body of water, part of which lies within Mexico’s jurisdiction. Mexico later sued Google over its use of “Gulf of America” for U.S. users.
“Everyone thinks I kid,” Trump said Saturday about his original proposal to rename the gulf. “Everybody smiled, ‘Oh, that’s so funny.’ I did it, right? It’s done.”
In April, Trump joked that he had considered calling it the “Gulf of Trump.”
In August, Trump signed another order directing federal agencies to call Lake Ontario, which borders New York and the Canadian province of Ontario, “Lake America.” The name change came amid an escalating U.S.-Canada tariff war and prompted rebuke from Democratic lawmakers as well as Canadian officials: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the new name, saying Canadians would call it Lake Ontario “then, now and always.”
Last month, Trump floated renaming the state of New Mexico as “New America.” He used the name again in an Oct. 3 video endorsing Republican Greg Cunningham for the state’s 2nd congressional district. But the President said that the state’s name would be left “up to” New Mexicans.
“I’m not going to push it, but a lot of people are liking it a lot,” he said. Officially renaming a state would likely require approval by the state and Congress.
Also in September, Trump suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway over which fighting has intensified amid the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran, the “Trump Strait.”
When asked how serious he was, Trump said the idea was “just thrown out there.” He reiterated the idea at Saturday’s rally, saying “we’re thinking about doing it,” but he said he wouldn’t make the name change himself.
Amid raucous applause on Saturday, the President mused about the affection he receives at rallies.
He told the crowd, “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap.”
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