US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz “Trump Strait” and claimed that the waterway was under US control.
Mr Trump has already ordered the US government to rename two international bodies of water, changing the official designations of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and Lake Ontario to Lake America.
“Now that we have it under USA control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to Trump Strait?” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before.”
The President only has the power to tell the federal government how to refer to place names. Other countries are free to ignore his new nomenclatures, though tech giants Google and Apple quickly fell in line and updated their maps for US users.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump claimed the US had taken control of the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the waterway could soon become “worthless” as Gulf states fast-track alternatives for sending energy supplies to global markets.
The Trump administration has struggled to end the war in Iran and fully reopen the strait, where shipping levels remain a fraction of prewar norms.
The strait, through which one-fifth of the global petroleum liquids used to be shipped, has been at the centre of the stand-off with Iran.
The situation has sent energy prices higher and the US President's approval ratings lower before midterm elections in November, where control of Congress is at stake, and American voters are concerned about rising costs.
Mr Trump's fixation on changing names has drawn ridicule online, but also ignited a wider debate over whether a US President should unilaterally be able change geographical names.
Could Trump rename the strait?
Though the Strait of Hormuz is not located near the US, there is a process by which the US Geological Survey could allow for a name change, although it would mainly only be followed by federal agencies.
A domestic names committee within the USGS takes submissions and votes on potential changes for locations inside the US. Another entity, the Foreign Names Committee of the US Board on Geographic Names could weigh in on a hypothetical Strait of Hormuz name change.
The National did not immediately receive a response to a request for comment from the Foreign Names Committee.
The USGS website section dedicated to the committee says that it oversees the “standardisation of foreign place names for use by the federal government”. There is a lengthy list of requirements for submitting name changes before they are brought before a vote.
When the USGS officially responded to Mr Trump’s request to change Lake Ontario to Lake America last week, the President posted an email from agency director Ned Mamula announcing it had made the switch.
“As of 4.30pm today, the US Geological Survey has officially designated the former Lake Ontario to be renamed as Lake America in all official USGS electronic documents … the change will begin occurring in printed documents over the next several days,” he wrote.
The National did not immediately receive a response for a request for comment from Mr Mamula on the potential renaming of the Strait of Hormuz.
