Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a bill on Jan. 9 to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America after President-elect Donald Trump suggested the name change earlier in the week.
If enacted, the Department of Interior would oversee the implementation of the new policy. No later than 180 days after the bill became law, documents and maps in federal agencies would be updated with the new name.
Trump has repeatedly called for renaming the Gulf of Mexico, which is encircled by Mexico alongside Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and is connected to the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
“‘The Gulf of America.’ What a beautiful name,” he said on Jan. 7.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has rebuffed Trump’s calls, saying that the United States should be renamed “America Mexicana.”
“It sounds pretty, no?” she said at a press conference on Jan. 8. “Isn’t it true?”
Trump could unilaterally rename the body of water, which is nicknamed America’s “Third Coast,” but other countries might not recognize the new name.
The Spanish name for it is “El Golfo de México.”
If Trump were to do so, it would not be the first time a president has renamed a landmark.
In 2012, the Obama administration renamed Alaska’s Mount McKinley, named after the United States’ 25th president, “Denali.” Trump has pledged to revert the name back to Mount McKinley.
In addition to positing a Gulf of Mexico renaming, Trump has made other statements recently that have ruffled the feathers of world leaders.
In recent weeks, he has called for the United States to reacquire the Panama Canal, for the United States to acquire Greenland, and has suggested that Canada become America’s 51st state.
