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Sundar Pichai (allegedly) draws the line at oceans

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Sundar Pichai (allegedly) draws the line at oceans

President Trump claimed that the Google CEO refused to rename the Atlantic Ocean in Maps.

Capitulating to a bully might seem like a good idea in the short term. But do it once, and you've proven that you'll acquiesce to an escalating series of demands. Take Google, for example. The company, which appeased Trump by renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario in Google Maps, has (allegedly) had to field a call about renaming the Atlantic Ocean.

That's the scenario President Trump recounted at a rally on Wednesday in South Carolina. He said he called Google CEO Sundar Pichai to ask whether Google Maps could "handle" a new name for the Atlantic. The president said he'd weighed whether to use "Trump" or "America" on either the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. Pichai's response was, reportedly, "Please don't ask us to do that."

According to Trump, Google's compliance finally hit a limit. "No, no, no, this time I'm not doing it," Trump quoted the CEO as saying. "Oceans are different, sir." The stated rationale was that oceans "cover a lot of countries." Of course, the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario also touch more than one country: three for the former and two for the latter.

Trump said he'd "probably pass" on the Atlantic. However, he also floated renaming the Pacific Ocean "the American Ocean" instead.

Google didn't stumble into this. In early 2025, it relabeled the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" for US users following Trump's executive order.


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