Trump Says Google's Pichai Drew the Line at Renaming the Atlantic Ocean

Google has redrawn maps for a lake and a gulf at Donald Trump's request. The Atlantic Ocean, apparently, is where it stops.

Speaking at a rally Wednesday night, Trump said he'd called Google CEO Sundar Pichai to see about renaming the Atlantic, and that Pichai talked him out of it. According to Trump's account, reported earlier by the Washington Post, Pichai told him: "No, no, no. This time, I'm not doing it," adding, "Oceans are different, sir."

Trump recounted the exchange in detail at the rally, telling the crowd he'd called Pichai directly and asked, "Sundar, I'm thinking of the Atlantic Ocean, can you handle it?" He said Pichai explained that oceans touch too many countries to rename unilaterally, allegedly telling him, "they cover really a lot of countries. Please don't ask us to do that." Trump's response: "So I'll probably pass. I think let's keep it the Atlantic Ocean, right?"

The exchange is a window into how Trump has been handling the renaming campaign that started with the Gulf of Mexico, which he ordered changed to the "Gulf of America," and extended to Lake Ontario. Google updated both on Google Maps following Trump's executive orders, and Apple followed Google's lead on its own Maps app. Not every platform has gone along — MapQuest has refused to make the changes, according to the Verge's reporting.

Trump's rally remarks suggest the Atlantic was a serious consideration, not just a throwaway line. He described himself as selective about which bodies of water deserve his attention, telling the crowd, "I only like two oceans, the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. I'm not going to put either Trump or America on any other ocean but these two." He also said he'd considered renaming a river, floating both the Hudson and the Mississippi before deciding against both. Of the Mississippi specifically, he said, "I'll never do that to Mississippi. Can you imagine? Let's change the name of the Mississippi."

The Pacific wasn't so lucky in his telling. Trump said he's considering calling it the "American Ocean" instead, asking the crowd, "How do you think Europe would feel? Do you think they'd like that?"

Trump also offered some color on his relationship with Google's leadership, calling Pichai "a brilliant guy" and lumping him in with Google co-founder Sergey Brin as "totally brilliant guys." He added that the two "are still rattled from the Gulf," a reference to the backlash Google faced after changing the Gulf of Mexico's name on Maps.

The Verge reached out to Google for comment on Trump's account of the call but hadn't received a response at the time of publication.

Whether or not Pichai's exact words match Trump's retelling, the practical outcome is the same: the Atlantic Ocean's name stays put on Google Maps, at least for now. The Pacific may not be so safe.