Trump says he asked Google CEO to rename Atlantic Ocean on Maps
Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, the president said he had called Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, to ask whether the company could “handle” his proposal.
“I only like two oceans: the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. I’m not going to put either Trump or America on any other ocean but these two. So we seriously looked at the Atlantic Ocean, and I called Google Maps, who were really great with the lake … They’re still rattled from the Gulf. I said: ‘Sundar, I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean,’” Trump said.
Trump referenced his previous executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, as well as his push to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America amid a trade feud between the US and Canada, for which he also signed an executive order requiring US federal agencies to use his new moniker.
According to Trump, Pichai rejected the latest proposal. Trump described the Google CEO’s response by saying, “No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it … Oceans are different, sir. They cover … a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.”
“So I’ll probably pass. Should I pass it?” Trump said, adding: “I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/22/trump-atlantic-ocean-rename-googleOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
62 replies
How interesting. Release the Epstein files.
You mean Trump files 🤣🤣🤣
American Files 💪
There is a zero percent chance that call actually happened at all.
Either he imagined/dreamed it and can't tell the difference or just fucking lying because why would he not?
Why would Google get to rename an ocean?
FUCK THESE MASSIVE CORPS!!! BURN THEM TO THE FUCKING GROUND!!!!
They can't. The USGIS sets names of things for Americans and Trump can basically order them to do whatever. I hate Google and friends but they're an American company and within the borders of the US, the USGIS decides what things are named.
Fuck them for everything else they're doing though.
It's definitely not the first or only fuckery with maps either. India has them display Kashmir as part of India, while other regions show it as disputed. If a nation is important enough to Google, they'll do whatever you want to keep that ad money rolling in.
There’s absolutely nothing whatsoever forcing these companies to use GNIS names, even for users within the US; they’re doing so purely out of their own discretion.
Outside of federal contract work, you can use whatever names you want in a mapping product.
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF12881
They certainly don't have to, I guess my point was less "they're complying with idiots" and more "they didn't initiate the idiocy". I see how this is unclear in my comment, but I'm not sure how to make it more clear. MapQuest is an example of a mapping company choosing not to follow government direction.
I guess as much as I severely dislike our technocrats and how they enable Donnie, I want to ensure we primarily blame Donnie for Donnie's idiocy.
With ya all the way on that front 🤙
They absolutely can but at the same time, whose authority/responsibility is it to make these changes if not GNIS? Google's? If Ukraine were to give up the Donbas to Russia in some sort of settlement, should Google respect that decision as well? When China and Taiwan argue about territory, whose side should they take?
Because it is cheaper to placate him than to face the wrath of his government. Why else do companies do anything?
Fair! Still... Fuck them!!
That's how oligarchies work. Which is the model the Trump administration has been following.
I think I'll rename the water in my toilet bowl the Lake of Trump.
I already say "I've gatta take a Trump", so this actually really makes sense!
I really like this! In a thread full of complainers you’ve actually taken direct action.
Yep, and I dropped a couple of Drumpfs in there today too.
Alright I need someone to make me a Lake Trump label of some kind to affix to my toilet now.
Do they name swamps?
Please, no insulting honest swamps
Wetlands are extremely valuable ecologies!
I really thought I opened the "not the onion" community
I love how instead of saying, “no,” he said “please don’t ask us to do that.” What a fucking pussy.
You are taking Trump's word for what he said. Statistically, there is a 0% chance that is correct. Was probably still some little bitch reply, just not that.
I'm taking more of a "that happened" approach: Trump imagined this and is too senile to tell the difference anymore.
Or just fucking lied.
When dealing with a pussy like Trump you have two possibilities: either you are in a position of power where you can come across as stronger than him (then he adores you) or you have to make him think the thing you want is a clever thing and it’s Trump's achievement to pick the clever thing. Otherwise he will just steamroll you for the sake of feeling great and powerful.
As soon as the democrats are in power, they should instantly start breaking up these big corps (among many other things like ranked-choice voting and, y'know, trying and convicting all the criminals in the admin).
You know they'll say it's time to heal and move on and not look backwards.
They were trying to break up Google. Nice strawman. You're either a troll or mindlessly repeating the lines you read on social media.
So Google was perfectly fine with screwing over Mexico and Canada. Good to know. I hope the Mexican and Canadian federal governments are paying attention.
You’re assuming this isn’t made up.
It sounds entirely made up.
Stop using corporate trash. Use coMaps and put in the effort to contribute!
Change starts small and grows with the people.
I was curious but it's true!
they unfortunately assume addresses increase somewhat linearly down streets
Weird. Neither OpenStreetMap nor CoMaps does any automatic address interpolation or inference. All the data you see there was either imported from a suitably-licensed authoritative source or added by a contributor.
If you're seeing misnumbering of addresses, it's almost certainly human error, but it won't be a regular thing.
They know what addresses are? I just get sent to a block.
there are a couple places where it falsely assumes an address is on one block (like assuming 150 is between 100 and 200)
I've been using CoMaps and it's pretty decent. Definitely less features than Google Maps, like no satellite view. But it does a few things better, like easier Route From and Route To.
The conversation with Sundar never happened. We know this because Sundar would have immediately said "Yes, sir! Whatever you want, sir!" He has never said no to Trump and never will. This is because Sundar is pure evil.
This is the fakest conversation I’ve ever heard.
First, Sundar would gargle Trump’s soiled diaper if Trump asked. Second, there’s just no way Pichai was like “no that touches too many countries, oceans are too hard”. Also, Trump don’t know non US maps aren’t actually changed except the parenthetical. It’s literally an update to the locale mapping an intern could do. Maybe that was a subtle fuck off, but see point 1.
Is the implication that he called Google before renaming the Gulf (but really only the US) and trying to rename Lake Ontario, because that’s never been the story. So why is he calling them now, and why does whether Google thinks it’s hard matter?
So I’m calling it now: fake lies from the pedophile.
Sundar's strong jawline quivered, but he stood up straight, broadening his shoulders and tightening his shapely behind. "Please sir," he said, with a tear in his eye, "Oceans are different, sir. Please don't ask us to do that."
Um excuse me, are you calling our dear sweet president a liar?!
We got the results back, you're Aladeen.
"And when everything's America--" (evil laugh) "--nothing will be."
I mean I don't have that much love for Google, but I gotta feel bad for Sundar Pichai. Here's a guy just trying to run his company, and the (supposed) leader of the free world calls- not about something important, not about a threat to the Internet, not about the future of online policy, but about renaming an ocean on a whim.
And it's your job to talk him down.
I could see him saying like 'secretary, cancel the rest of my day, I need to go home and cry for the future of the country'.
He gets paid enough, he can handle it.
Oh good I’m sure this will fix the economy, give us affordable housing and healthcare, end the wars in Ukraine, and Iran, and end the genocide is Palestine, and get the Epstein files fully released… hey America are we tired yet from all this winning?
"We've renamed it the 'TRUMP-EPSTEIN Files Ocean. Thank you for this distraction."
I'm slowly trying to untie myself from google. Most recently disabled Google maps because of their renaming stuff that shouldn't be.
Tomtom is working for me for now, I hopped around to a few different nav apps but landed there. Tried a few osm based ones but they were all pretty rough around the edges, middle and centers.
Map Quest is pretty solid so far for me. Love that they added the feature to let you see flock cams on the map
Here maps?
Hrm... Hadn't seen it will check it out
Google isn't renaming anything.
We are getting into crazy grandpa territory here.
We’ve been deep in those woods for years.
Yeah. Biden had some crazy grandpa energy, but also policy coherence, a staff who could set him straight, and most importantly, awareness of his condition so he could compensate. Not ideal, but nothing like Trump.
He’s also technically asked Canada and Greenland to rename themselves America too.
Can someone just kill him?
Honestly I would have rather Google renamed it. Just to really cement their legacy as bootlickers.
Also this just reeks of "hey see Google still has morals. They may have renamed the Gulf of Mexico and they may have renamed Lake Ontario but by God they know the oceans are sacred so they can't be that bad." I bet they paid Trump to specifically say this.