Donald Trump has put a deadline on another geographic renaming idea. Now he wants an ocean to bear a new label before leaving office in 2028. At a rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, he floated giving either the Atlantic or Pacific a name tied to himself or the Americas.
Donald Trump suggested giving one of the world’s two largest oceans his name at a Tennessee rally
The proposal came as Donald Trump mused that his naming campaign needed a river as well as a lake and a gulf. “So, we need a river, we need an ocean,” Trump told the crowd, then pitched “Trump Ocean” or “Ocean of the Americas” as possible choices (via HuffPost).
Trump again said he wanted the ocean named before his term ends, making the 2028 timeline part of the pitch. The idea followed a suggestion from the previous month that New Mexico be renamed “New America,” another proposal he floated but had not enacted.
Trump has already pushed through two geographic renaming efforts at the federal level. In January 2025, he signed an executive order instructing government agencies to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.” Another order, issued in August 2026, directed officials to update federal geographic records to list “Lake Ontario” as “Lake America.”
Trump’s administration has pursued similar changes beyond the lake, reinstating “Mount McKinley” as the official name in federal records for Alaska’s Denali. However, the Lake Ontario move presents a separate complication: the body of water spans the U.S.-Canadian border, and Canadian officials continue to call it “Lake Ontario.” As a result, labels may differ depending on which country’s maps people consult.
The Lake Ontario renaming push took an especially bizarre turn on Truth Social in August. One AI-generated video showed Trump approaching a sign bearing the lake’s existing name, knocking it over and replacing it with a “Welcome to Lake America” version featuring an American flag. He then did his trademark fist-pumping dance (via The Daily Beast).
