Trump recounts Pichai’s resistance to Atlantic Ocean name change
The president suggested the Pacific could instead become the American Ocean. Google has not confirmed his account of the call, The Washington Post reported.
President Donald Trump told rallygoers in South Carolina that he would probably drop a proposed name change for the Atlantic Ocean after objections from Google chief executive Sundar Pichai. According to Trump, Pichai resisted the request because oceans span numerous countries.
The Washington Post reported that Google had not verified whether the conversation occurred. Trump nevertheless raised another possibility at the rally: giving the Pacific the name American Ocean. He said he wanted either Trump or America attached to one of the two oceans.
CNN reported that Trump had recounted a similar exchange at a Dalton, Georgia, rally five days earlier. There, he said he sent Google a picture labeled The Trump Ocean and was told the company could not accommodate the request. Trump said that particular request had been a joke.
Previous changes on Google Maps include displaying Gulf of America to US users instead of Gulf of Mexico. The service also adopted Lake America as the label for Lake Ontario in August, following an executive order signed by Trump two days earlier. Apple Maps adopted the lake name in September.
