Executive Order Renames West Wing Water Fountain the Strait of Hormuz

An executive order signed Monday afternoon renames the drinking fountain on the ground floor of the West Wing, in the corridor between the Navy Mess and the elevator, the Strait of Hormuz. The order is effective immediately, runs to one page, and makes no reference to the waterway of the same name.

The authority is not in dispute and is exercised constantly. The naming of fixtures, rooms, corridors and equipment within federal buildings sits with the executive, requires no consultation, and is ordinarily handled at a level no one reports on. Seven rooms in the building have been renamed since 2011. The order is unusual only in its subject and in the second paragraph, which concerns the press office.

That paragraph directs that questions submitted to the White House regarding the Strait of Hormuz be understood as questions regarding the fountain, and answered accordingly. A spokesman confirmed the office had received the guidance, described it as clarifying, and said it resolves an ambiguity that had previously been handled case by case.

“We answer the question we are asked. The question names a thing. The thing is in the hallway.”

The practice began Tuesday. Asked at the morning briefing whether the administration expected disruption to transits through the Strait of Hormuz, the spokesman said pressure was normal, flow was steady, and that there had been no interruption at any point in the preceding seventy-two hours. Asked whether that was a comment on the waterway, he said it was a comment on the Strait of Hormuz.

The fountain’s status, as briefed this week

• Monday: no restriction on access.
• Tuesday: pressure normal, flow steady, no interruption.
• Wednesday: a reduction in flow, attributed to the building.
• Thursday: the reduction is described as temporary and the office declines to characterise its cause.
• Friday: the office declines to comment on speculation regarding the reduction.
• Nothing in the week was untrue of the fountain.

The difficulty is that the answers are being read by people who are not asking about a hallway. Marine underwriters price transit risk in part on the statements of governments, and Wednesday’s reduction in flow moved a benchmark rate before noon. A marine insurance body said its members had reviewed the briefing, could not identify a basis for disregarding it, and noted that the administration had not at any point said the statement concerned plumbing.

The Department of Energy said Thursday that it does not comment on the fountain. Asked whether the fountain was within its remit, a departmental spokeswoman said the question would need to be directed to the White House, which is where it was directed, and which answered that the pressure was normal.

Maintenance records are now handled through the classification system, the building having determined that a document describing the condition of the Strait of Hormuz cannot be released on request. Two custodial staff have been read into the compartment. A third, who declined the clearance, has been reassigned to the fountain on the second floor, which has not been renamed and about which no one has asked.

The fountain was installed in 1991, delivers water at forty-one degrees, and is used mainly by people waiting for the elevator.

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The paper reported the renaming of the planet on August 30. That designation remains in force and is unaffected by this order.