Donald Trump has said he wants to rename the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean the "Trump Ocean" or "Ocean of America". The US President suggested the name change during a rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, on Sunday, following attempts to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario.
He said: "We've got the Gulf. We've got a beautiful lake. Now, somebody said, you need a river. We need a river. We need an ocean.
"We'll call it 'Trump Ocean' or 'Ocean of the Americas', something like that. Before I get out, I think we should have an ocean. And we need a great river."
Previous Renaming Efforts
Mr Trump went on: "The lake change, Lake of America, was something I've been thinking about for a long time, actually. We took something called the Gulf of Mexico, we changed it, and now it's very routinely the Gulf of America.
"So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both."
Mr Trump signed an executive order in August to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, and previously declared that the Gulf of Mexico should be known as the Gulf of America. In May, the Republican-led House passed a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and to direct federal agencies to update their documents and maps to reflect the new name.
Limits and Reactions
Mr Trump's order only carries authority within the US; Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognise the name change. Then, in August, he signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update Lake Ontario's name to Lake America in the US geographic naming service. Mr Trump cannot, however, force Canada to follow along.
He floated the idea of a name change as the US announced it would impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down.
The US President also suggested Canada should be absorbed as the 51st state.
Canada responded to his import taxes by imposing retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the move, invoking the lake's Indigenous roots and noting that the name predates both the Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence.
"Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always," he wrote.
