Abstract:
U.S. President Donald Trump proposed renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. The proposal comes less than a week after Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario "American Lake" amid a deepening dispute with Canada.
In a post on Wednesday morning, Trump wrote: "Now that we have it under US control, should we change the name of the Strait of Hormuz to 'Trump Strait'???"
"Like America itself, it's going to be 'hotter' than ever! Thank you for your attention. President Donald J. Trump."
It is unclear how Trump will try to change the name of the strait far from the U.S. mainland.
The previous executive order to rename Lake Ontario directed U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgham and his department to update the Geographic Names Information System with the new name. Canada refused to accept the change, but Google and Apple have recently updated their maps.
At the beginning of his second presidential term, Trump also announced that the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the "Gulf of the United States". This change was also rejected by Mexico and other international partners. The United States borders Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico, both place names that have been used for hundreds of years.
It is also unclear whether Trump is serious about this latest plan to change the names of international geographical features.
When asked at the White House on Wednesday afternoon whether he really planned to rename the strait, Trump suggested he wasn't serious.
"No, no...just a passing mention," Trump said.
Trump and his administration have repeatedly insisted that Iran has lost control of the Strait of Hormuz - which carried a fifth of the world's oil trade before the war broke out in late February.
But shipping volumes through the waterway remain well below pre-war levels, with ship tracking agencies saying they have fallen further recently as military strikes in the region resumed after weeks of pause.
The Trump administration claims that total oil exports from the region are now higher than pre-war levels, including pipelines from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday that more than 17 million barrels of oil passed through the strait on Monday, setting a wartime single-day record. Before the conflict began on February 28, approximately 20 million barrels of crude oil and refined oil products passed through the strait every day.
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