Fact Check: Did Trump sign an order to rename French fries to American fries?
WASHINGTON, DC: Amid President Donald Trump’s aggressive proposals to rename geographical regions in America, a rumor is circulating on social media platforms claiming that the president has signed an order to rename French fries to American Fries. The claim has triggered mockery, criticism, and speculation, with many calling for a fact-check.
Claim: Donald Trump renames French fries to American Fries
According to the viral claim, Trump has signed an executive order renaming French fries to American fries.
The claim has spread on multiple platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, collectively garnering millions of views as of this writing.
The claim drew mostly mockery and criticism against the president, indicating that many believe the claim is true, while a few others called it fake, prompting a verification of the rumor.
Fact Check: The claim was intended as satire
Although Trump has signed several executive orders to rename things to America recently, there are no reports of French fries being renamed to American fries.
There are no such official orders, announcements, statements, or social media posts from the president or the White House that support the viral claim, which, if true, would not go unreported by prominent news media outlets.
A search on Google and other search engines for the claim also yielded no credible media reports.
The searches also revealed that a similar development took place in 2003 when several restaurants in the US renamed French fries to Freedom Fries in response to France’s opposition to the US invasion of Iraq.
Moreover, a closer look at the image that accompanied the claim included an overlay text stating, ‘Breaking Satire’; hence, the claim was intended as a parody made for the sake of clickbait.
Donald Trump pushes multiple geographic renaming efforts
The claim surfaced as the Trump administration has pursued several geographic naming changes, such as signing an executive order directing the federal government to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.”
“As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico, we changed it, and now it's very routinely the Gulf of America,” Trump said.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” instructing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, working with the 'Board on Geographic Names,' to update the federal Geographic Names Information System within 30 days.
The president also suggested that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans could eventually be renamed.
