WASHINGTON — President Trump doesn’t just want to make waves; he wants to own the waves.
The president tested the waters on the possibility of renaming both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans after himself during a rally on Saturday, marking his latest attempt to make his mark on the map.
“We’ve got the Gulf, we’ve got a beautiful lake, and now someone said ‘you need a river,’ so, I don’t wanna change the name of the Hudson River,” Trump mused during the rally in Clarksville, Tenn. “Henry Hudson, he did a good job sailing up that sucker a long time ago.
“So, we need a river; we need an ocean,” he went on. “So, I was thinking of either the Atlantic or the Pacific. We call it Trump Ocean or Ocean of the Americans, something like that.
“No, before I get out, I think we should have an ocean, and we need a great river. Now, I’m not changing the name of the Mississippi. I love Mississippi. We won that state by so much.”
Already, Trump has moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” and Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” the latter of which came in retaliation over trade tensions with Canada.
Some of those began as apparent jokes and then Trump later signed executive orders to implement those changes.
Trump has also floated the idea of renaming the state of New Mexico as “New America” and the Strait of Hormuz as the “Trump Strait.” So far, he hasn’t followed through on those.
Additionally, the former real estate mogul, who was famous for slapping his name on his real estate properties, has fought to rename iconic government structures after himself.
Last year, his administration renamed the headquarters for the Institute of Peace as the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.” That came amid Trump’s not-so-subtle public pressure campaign for him to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump had intervened in multiple conflicts overseas with the goal of ending them, while apparently aiming to be honored with the coveted prize.
After he ordered the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, prominent opposition figure María Corina Machado gave Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded.
Although he now technically owns a Nobel Peace Prize that Machado earned, Trump has continued to express frustration with the Norwegian Nobel Committee over its decision not to give him the prestigious award.
“This is the woman who received the Nobel Peace Prize over the Great United States of America, whose Representative, ME, settled eight Wars, and many other things,” Trump wrote on Truth Social with a tone of disgust on Friday alongside a photo of the most recent prize winner, Navi Pillay.
“I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else!”
In addition to rebranding the Institute of Peace, Trump has attempted to rename the Kennedy Center after himself, but a judge blocked him from doing so, prompting his administration to put a tarp up over it.
The president was later seen looking at demolition plans for the Kennedy Center, though the courts have since ordered his administration to give 30 days’ notice before making major changes to the facility.
Trump has implied that demolishing the nation’s iconic cultural center may be necessary due to damage at the facility supposedly caused by storms.
