Trump Suggests Renaming Atlantic or Pacific Ocean to Trump Ocean

United States President Donald Trump suggested renaming the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean to the Trump Ocean or the American Ocean during a campaign rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, according to reporting by Notícias ao Minuto, Diário do Centro do Mundo, SAPO, and Metrópoles. The proposal follows prior executive actions by Trump to rename geographic landmarks such as the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario during his time in office.

Donald Trump Proposes Renaming Oceans at Tennessee Campaign Rally

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Clarksville, Tennessee, on an unspecified weekend date reported by Notícias ao Minuto and SAPO, Donald Trump floated the idea of renaming major global bodies of water. We could call it the Trump Ocean or the American Ocean. Something like that… We have to do that. We should do that before I leave [the presidency of the United States], Trump stated, as reported by Notícias ao Minuto. Diário do Centro do Mundo and Metrópoles reported the event occurred on a Sunday, organized to rally support for Republican candidates in upcoming midterm elections.

During the same speech, Trump noted that while he suggested changing ocean names, he had no intention of altering the names of domestic rivers with historical designations. I’m not going to change the name of the Mississippi. I love the Mississippi. We won in that state by a wide margin, he said, according to Notícias ao Minuto. He also ruled out renaming the Hudson River in New York, which honors explorer Henry Hudson, according to SAPO.

Geographic Renaming Actions and Prior Decrees

The suggestion to rename the oceans builds on previous geographic redesignations enacted or proposed by the Trump administration. Diário do Centro do Mundo, Metrópoles, and Notícias ao Minuto noted that on the first day of his return to the presidency in January 2025, Trump signed a presidential decree changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Metrópoles and Diário do Centro do Mundo added that Lake Ontario on the United States-Canada border was also designated by his administration as the Lake of America.

In addition to his comments in Tennessee, Trump recently suggested that the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East—through which twenty percent of global peacetime oil passes—should be renamed the Trump Strait, as reported by Notícias ao Minuto and SAPO. At the Tennessee rally, Trump remarked on the perceived lack of geographic features bearing his name, stating, We have the gulf. We have a beautiful lake… Now, someone said: we need a river… We need a river. We need an ocean, according to Notícias ao Minuto.

Midterm Election Context and Republican Support in Tennessee

Diário do Centro do Mundo and Metrópoles reported that the Clarksville rally served primarily to mobilize voters for Republican midterm election candidates competing for congressional seats and state posts. Trump urged the audience to view the ballot as a referendum on his own leadership. Pretend I am the candidate, with that we will have forty-eight percent more votes, Trump told the crowd, according to Diário do Centro do Mundo and Metrópoles.

The choice of Tennessee reflects the state’s strong Republican voting base. Diário do Centro do Mundo and Metrópoles noted that Trump won the state in the presidential election with 64.2 percent of the vote, compared to 34.5 percent for Democrat Kamala Harris. While Diário do Centro do Mundo and Metrópoles framed the speech around the midterm campaigns, Notícias ao Minuto and SAPO emphasized the geographic naming proposals and reactions from the audience, which greeted the ocean renaming suggestion with laughter and applause.