President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Sep 2) suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz as "Trump Strait", asserting US control of the vital waterway even as fighting raged there with Iran.
It is the latest in a series of geographical name changes floated by Trump, and comes after he claimed US sovereignty over the strait that Tehran has effectively shut for six months.
"Now that we have it under USA control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be 'hotter' than ever before!" Trump said on his Truth Social network.
The White House later posted a map of the Gulf on social media with the waterway marked "Trump Strait".
"It's got a nice ring to it," the White House post added.
The 80-year-old president's call to unilaterally rename an international body of water after himself comes despite the fact that the six-month-old war with Iran shows no sign of ending.
Since returning to office last year, Trump has made a string of similar renaming suggestions, which started out as apparent attempts to troll his adversaries, but then came to fruition.
Last week, the 80-year-old Republican signed an order renaming Lake Ontario as "Lake America" amid a trade war with neighbouring Canada.
Trump also renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" on his first day back in the White House in January 2025. Neither Mexico nor Canada have accepted the changes.
Trump additionally reverted the name of Denali, North America's highest peak, to its former moniker Mt McKinley.
FIGHTING HAS FLARED AGAIN
The billionaire president has also gone on a spree of renaming things after himself, including the Kennedy arts centre in Washington, a peace institute, a "Trump Gold Card" for immigration and a "Trump Rx" drug-sales website.
The US Treasury meanwhile on Wednesday issued US$1 coins featuring Trump's face to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, running counter to federal law that says no living president may appear on US currency.
But the strait suggestion may also be aimed at providing a fresh distraction from the Iran war, which has caused oil prices to spike for US consumers ahead of crucial midterm elections in November.
Fighting has flared again after weeks of calm, with US forces launching fresh strikes near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday in response to what Trump said were new minelaying efforts by Iran.
Iran said one of the US strikes killed four people at a wedding, branding it a "war crime", and launched a wave of retaliatory strikes at US bases in Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq.
Iran has effectively shut down the chokepoint, through which a fifth of the world's oil passes, in retaliation for the war Trump started along with Israel in late February.
Trump has in recent weeks repeatedly pressed a threat to claim sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, even posting a map showing the waterway as a "new US territory".
Source: AFP
– Agencies
