Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, the president said he had called Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, to ask whether the company could “handle” his proposal.
“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. So we seriously looked at the Atlantic Ocean, and I called Google Maps, who were really great with the lake … They’re still rattled from the Gulf. I said: ‘Sundar, I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean,’” Trump said.
Trump referenced his previous executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, as well as his push to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America amid a trade feud between the US and Canada, for which he also signed an executive order requiring US federal agencies to use his new moniker.
According to Trump, Pichai rejected the latest proposal. Trump described the Google CEO’s response by saying, “No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it … Oceans are different, sir. They cover … a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.”
“So I’ll probably pass. Should I pass it?” Trump said, adding: “I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean.”
There is a zero percent chance that call actually happened at all.
Either he imagined/dreamed it and can’t tell the difference or just fucking lying because why would he not?
Why would Google get to rename an ocean?
FUCK THESE MASSIVE CORPS!!! BURN THEM TO THE FUCKING GROUND!!!
They can’t. The USGIS sets names of things for Americans and Trump can basically order them to do whatever. I hate Google and friends but they’re an American company and within the borders of the US, the USGIS decides what things are named.
Fuck them for everything else they’re doing though.
There’s absolutely nothing whatsoever forcing these companies to use GNIS names, even for users within the US; they’re doing so purely out of their own discretion.
Outside of federal contract work, you can use whatever names you want in a mapping product.
BGN decisions are not required to be adopted by nonfederal domestic entities, such as private company applications (e.g., Google Maps and Apple Maps); however, some nonfederal entities have chosen to do so or generally have a policy to defer to GNIS nomenclature.
They certainly don’t have to, I guess my point was less “they’re complying with idiots” and more “they didn’t initiate the idiocy”. I see how this is unclear in my comment, but I’m not sure how to make it more clear. MapQuest is an example of a mapping company choosing not to follow government direction.
I guess as much as I severely dislike our technocrats and how they enable Donnie, I want to ensure we primarily blame Donnie for Donnie’s idiocy.
With ya all the way on that front 🤙
Removed by mod
Because it is cheaper to placate him than to face the wrath of his government. Why else do companies do anything?
Fair! Still… Fuck them!!
That’s how oligarchies work. Which is the model the Trump administration has been following.
I think I’ll rename the water in my toilet bowl the Lake of Trump.
I already say “I’ve gatta take a Trump”, so this actually take makes sense!
Do they name swamps?
Please, no insulting honest swamps
Wetlands are extremely valuable ecologies!
I really like this! In a thread full of complainers you’ve actually taken direct action.
Yep, and I dropped a couple of Drumpfs in there today too.
I really thought I opened the “not the onion” community
I love how instead of saying, “no,” he said “please don’t ask us to do that.” What a fucking pussy.
You are taking Trump’s word for what he said. Statistically, there is a 0% chance that is correct. Was probably still some little bitch reply, just not that.
I’m taking more of a “that happened” approach: Trump imagined this and is too senile to tell the difference anymore.
Or just fucking lied.
When dealing with a pussy like Trump you have two possibilities: either you are in a position of power where you can come across as stronger than him (then he adores you) or you have to make him think the thing you want is a clever thing and it’s Trump’s achievement to pick the clever thing. Otherwise he will just steamroll you for the sake of feeling great and powerful.
“No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it … Oceans are different, sir. They cover … a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.”
So Google was perfectly fine with screwing over Mexico and Canada. Good to know. I hope the Mexican and Canadian federal governments are paying attention.
You’re assuming this isn’t made up.
It sounds entirely made up.
This is the fakest conversation I’ve ever heard.
First, Sundar would gargle Trump’s soiled diaper if Trump asked. Second, there’s just no way Pichai was like “no that touches too many countries, oceans are too hard”. Also, Trump don’t know non US maps aren’t actually changed except the parenthetical. It’s literally an update to the locale mapping an intern could do. Maybe that was a subtle fuck off, but see point 1.
Is the implication that he called Google before renaming the Gulf (but really only the US) and trying to rename Lake Ontario, because that’s never been the story. So why is he calling them now, and why does whether Google thinks it’s hard matter?
So I’m calling it now: fake lies from the pedophile.
Um excuse me, are you calling our dear sweet president a liar?!
I’m slowly trying to untie myself from google. Most recently disabled Google maps because of their renaming stuff that shouldn’t be.
Tomtom is working for me for now, I hopped around to a few different nav apps but landed there. Tried a few osm based ones but they were all pretty rough around the edges, middle and centers.
Google isn’t renaming anything.
Map Quest is pretty solid so far for me. Love that they added the feature to let you see flock cams on the map
Here maps?
Hrm… Hadn’t seen it will check it out
Oh good I’m sure this will fix the economy, give us affordable housing and healthcare, end the wars in Ukraine, and Iran, and end the genocide is Palestine, and get the Epstein files fully released… hey America are we tired yet from all this winning?
“And when everything’s America–” (evil laugh) “–nothing will be.”
Honestly I would have rather Google renamed it. Just to really cement their legacy as bootlickers.
Also this just reeks of “hey see Google still has morals. They may have renamed the Gulf of Mexico and they may have renamed Lake Ontario but by God they know the oceans are sacred so they can’t be that bad.” I bet they paid Trump to specifically say this.
Can someone just kill him?
