Pichai allegedly told the president, “Oceans are different, sir.”
Pichai allegedly told the president, “Oceans are different, sir.”
After renaming Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps following Trump’s executive orders , Google CEO Sundar Pichai might be drawing the line at the Atlantic Ocean. As reported earlier by the Washington Post , Trump said at a Wednesday night rally that he would “probably pass” on renaming the Atlantic after he contacted Pichai about it, to which Pichai allegedly replied, “Please don’t ask us to do that.”
Trump claimed Pichai said, “No, no, no. This time, I’m not doing it,” adding “Oceans are different, sir.” The Verge reached out to Google for comment, but didn’t immediately get a response. Apple has joined Google in making Trump’s name changes on its maps, but some other map apps, like MapQuest , have refused to follow their lead.
Trump also fielded the idea of renaming the Pacific Ocean to the American Ocean instead and said, “We have a lake and we have a gulf, now we need a river and we need an ocean.”
You can read Trump’s full remarks on the situation below:
“So we have a lake and we have a gulf, now we need a river and we need an ocean. So I was thinking of the Hudson river, then I thought of the Mississippi and I said, ‘I’ll never do that to Mississippi.’ Can you imagine? Let’s change the name of the Mississippi. No, I don’t think that— but we’re looking for a river, but it’s not gonna be outstanding, cause those are the biggies, I like the big ones. And then an ocean. The only oceans I would do, cause I was always high-end, my father said, ‘that kid has the greatest eye for location.’
“So 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 and really great with [inaudible]. And I spoke to a brilliant guy, Sundar, he heads all of Google, he’s a brilliant guy. Sergey and Sundar, totally brilliant guys. You know, they’re still rattled from the Gulf.
“And I said, ‘Sundar, I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean, can you handle it?’ ‘No, no, no, this time I’m not doing it,’ he said. He said, ‘Oceans are different, sir. You know, they cover– they cover a lot– they cover really a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.’ So I’ll probably pass. I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean, right? Pacific Ocean… we’re gonna call it the American Ocean. How do you think Europe would feel? Do you think they’d like that?”
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