Trump Wants to Rename an Ocean: Could the Atlantic or Pacific Get a New Name?
First, it was renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," and then it was changing Lake Ontario to "Lake America." Now President Donald Trump wants to rename the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean to either the "Ocean of the Americas" or "Trump Ocean." What are the chances that this will actually happen? Read on for all of the details.
Trump Floats Idea of Renaming Major Ocean
The president has been on a roll renaming bodies of water since he took back the Oval Office for his second term. The first order of business was issuing an executive order in August of 2025 to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. More recently, the president issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, much to the chagrin of Canadians across the border.
Next up in Trump's renaming spree is one of the world's major oceans. While speaking at a campaign rally on Saturday in Clarksville, Tennessee, the president said, “We’ve got the Gulf, we’ve got a beautiful lake, and now someone said, ‘You need a river. I don’t wanna change the name of the Hudson River. We need a river, we need an ocean. So, I was thinking of either the Atlantic or the Pacific." He then went on to say, “We call it ‘Trump Ocean’ or ‘Ocean of the Americas.’ Something like that.”
Trump had first signaled that he wanted to rename one of the oceans during an executive order signing ceremony at the end of August. However, he revisited the idea over the weekend when speaking at the rally, telling his supporters, “We have to. We should have before I get out. I think we should have an ocean and we need a great river. Now I’m not changing the name of the Mississippi. I love Mississippi, we won that state by so much.”
Executive Power to Rename Landmarks
Does Trump actually have the authority to rename bodies of water and other types of landmarks? The U.S. government does have the power to change landmark names on its domestic maps; however, it cannot require other countries or international organizations to apply these changes.
Critics of the president say that he has not offered any significant reasons for wanting to change these names. When deciding to change the name of the Gulf, he initially told reporters, “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate.”
Trump applied a similar reasoning to his decision to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. “We’re gonna make a little change, we’re gonna call it something different than Lake Ontario,” he warned, taking a marker and crossing out the lake’s name on a map. “We’re gonna call it Lake America. And all it takes is a good pen and some intelligence.”
He then wrote “LAKE AMERICA” above the crossed-out title. “Now we have a lake and now we have a gulf,” he said. “Enjoy Lake America.”
Lastly, the current administration reverted Alaska's Mount Denali back to its former title of Mount McKinley. The tallest mountain in the country was originally named by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917 to honor former President William McKinley. The area that surrounds the 20,310-foot peak was also established as Mount McKinley National Park.
This name stood until 2015, when former President Barack Obama‘s administration renamed the peak to pay tribute to the Denali Alaskan Native population. However, in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order instructing the government to revert the official name of the mountain back to Mount McKinley. The surrounding area remains Denali National Park and Preserve.
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