President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed naming the Strait of Hormuz after himself, a move that comes as he attempts to leave his mark on the global stage by renaming international bodies of water.
“Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Like America itself, it would be “hotter” than ever before!”
When asked about the proposed name change just hours later in the Oval Office, Trump laughed and said, “No, no I was just throwing that out.”
The strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passed before the war, remains a critical waterway for the global oil supply.
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Unlike some of Trump’s previous efforts to rename bodies of water that border the U.S., the Strait of Hormuz is thousands of miles away from U.S. territory.
Trump’s suggestion to rename the strait comes days after he signed an executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” The controversial decision has drawn criticism, including from northern state Republicans whose jurisdictions border Canada, as Trump’s trade war with the country escalates.
Despite the pushback, some tech giants are following the president’s lead. Apple Maps, for example, acquiesced to the name change this week after the president personally reached out to the company. Google Maps changed the lake’s name shortly after Trump’s order last week.
He also renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America earlier in his term — and though the change is reflected on Apple Maps, it is not widely recognized by Mexico or other countries.
Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. has control of the Strait of Hormuz since the onset of the war in February — despite many instances of Iranian forces taking military action in the waterway.
The U.S. resumed major strikes against Iran earlier this week and targeted assets in the strait. Trump threatened Iran with the “biggest attack of them all,” but the country launched retaliatory strikes on U.S. allies in the region anyway, including on Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.
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