President Trump said Google CEO Sundar Pichai declined to go along with his idea to rename the Atlantic Ocean, arguing that the sprawling body of water touches too many countries for the tech giant to make the change on its maps.
Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, the commander-in-chief recounted a conversation with the Google boss after the company already adopted his new names for the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario — the Gulf of America and Lake America, respectively.
“We seriously looked at the Atlantic Ocean, and I called Google Maps, who are really great with the lake and really great,” Trump told the crowd.
The president said he personally pitched the idea to Pichai.
“I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean. Can you handle it?” he recalled asking the executive.
Pichai’s response, according to Trump, was an emphatic rejection.
“No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it,” Trump quoted the Google chief as saying.
Pichai explained that oceans were different because they covered numerous countries, according to the president.
“Please don’t ask us to do that,” Trump quoted Pichai as pleading.
He nevertheless heaped praise on the Google boss and company cofounder Sergey Brin, calling them “totally brilliant guys.”
“And you know, they’re still rattled from the Gulf,” Trump quipped.
“So I’ll probably pass. Should I pass it?” he concluded. “I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean, right?”
Earlier this month, Trump floated the idea of calling either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans the “Trump Ocean” or “Ocean of the Americas” during a rally in Tennessee.
He has also raised the possibility of renaming the Strait of Hormuz the “Trump Strait” and changing New Mexico to “New America.”
The exchange came after Google Maps adopted the names Gulf of America and Lake America for US users following executive orders that changed the federal designations of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario.
The company has continued displaying the original names of the bodies of water to users outside the US.
Not every mapping company has followed Trump’s lead.
MapQuest publicly refused to replace Lake Ontario with Lake America, declaring in an Aug. 27 social media post, “We’re not changing it.”
Google did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on Trump’s account of the conversation with Pichai.
Article credit and source