The US president, Donald Trumpproposed giving his name to the Strait of Hormuzspeculating that the move would make him “cooler.” “Now that it is under US control, should we change the name of the Strait of Hormuz to the Trump Strait???,” Trump wrote on his Truth social media site.
The geographical precedents with Canada and Mexico
It is the latest geographic name change proposed by Trump, coming a week after he ordered Lake Ontario to be renamed “Lake America” amid the trade war with Canada. Trump had already renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” on his first day back in the White House, in January 2025.
Neither Mexico nor Canada accepted the changes. Many of the previous name changes began as seemingly joking comments by the 80-year-old US president, before he actually made them a reality.
Tensions with Iran at the strategic hub
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly threatened to claim sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, even going so far as to release a map showing the waterway as a “new U.S. territory.”
However, Iran has effectively blocked this strategic point, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes, in response to the war started by Trump together with Israel at the end of February.