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- Google CEO Sundar Pichai said no Trump asked him to rename the Atlantic Ocean, the president said.
- Trump has floated the idea of renaming either the Atlantic or the Pacific to the "Trump Ocean."
- Earlier this year, he issued orders to change the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario.
President Donald Trump's plan to rename the Atlantic Ocean hit choppy waters when he took it to Google.
At a Wednesday rally in South Carolina, Trump said he considered putting his name or "America" on one of the two oceans that flank the US: the Atlantic and the Pacific.
"I’m not going to put either Trump or America on any other ocean but these two," he told the crowd.
Then, he said, he called Google to ask about making the change on Google Maps.
The tech giant had previously changed its US labels for the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario to the Gulf of America and Lake America after executive orders from the president.
"I spoke to a brilliant guy, Sundar. He heads all of Google," Trump said, referring to CEO Sundar Pichai. He also praised Google cofounder Sergey Brin, calling both men "totally brilliant guys," before joking that they were "still rattled from the Gulf."
Trump recounted putting his idea directly to Pichai: "Sundar, I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean. Can you handle it?"
"No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it," Trump quoted Pichai as replying. "Oceans are different, sir. They cover really a lot of countries. Please don't ask us to do that."
"So I'll probably pass," Trump told the crowd. "Should I pass it?" He then answered his own question: "I think let's keep it the Atlantic Ocean."
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was not Trump's first ocean pitch. At a Tennessee rally in early October, he floated "Trump Ocean" or "Ocean of the Americas" for the Atlantic or Pacific.
He has also mused about renaming a river, calling New Mexico "New America," and rechristening the Strait of Hormuz the "Trump Strait."
While those ideas remain proposals, Google Maps did adopt "Gulf of America" and "Lake America" for US users after the names changed in federal records. Users in Mexico and Canada still see the original names for the gulf and lake, respectively. Users in the rest of the world see the original names, followed by Trump's new names in brackets.
The changes have created a dilemma for people who make maps for an international audience. "The issue of international acceptance is also a factor, as some nations may not accept it," Joseph Wright, CEO of Replogle Globes, told Business Insider's Joshua Nelken-Zitser after the lake order.
"We sell globes worldwide."
For now, Trump's Atlantic idea appears to have sunk before it reached Google Maps.