Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested on Jan. 8 that the United States be renamed after President-elect Donald Trump proposed changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
Pointing to a territory that is now the United States, Mexico, and part of Canada, Sheinbaum proposed that North America be renamed “América Mexicana,” which translates to “Mexican America.”
She said a founding document dating from 1814 that preceded Mexico’s constitution referred to it that way.
“That sounds nice,” Sheinbaum said.
The 62-year-old climate scientist then took aim at Trump, saying that he was living in the past.
“I think they told President Trump wrong, they told him Felipe Calderón is still president,” Sheinbaum said, referring to the conservative who led Mexico from 2006 to 2012.
The Gulf of Mexico is a body of water that borders multiple U.S. states—Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—as well as Mexico and the island of Cuba.
Trump Says Mexico ‘Run by the Cartels’
Trump also said Mexico “has to stop allowing millions of people” to pour into the United States and that the country is “essentially run by the cartels” and is a “very dangerous place.”“We have a massive deficit with Mexico, and we help Mexico a lot,” he said.
Sheinbaum rejected Trump’s other claims during the Jan. 8 news conference, including that the country is run by drug cartels.
“In Mexico, the people are in charge,” she said.
Trump in November 2024 said his administration would impose sweeping new tariffs on goods from Mexico unless it takes a tougher stance on border security and drug trafficking.
Trump issued a similar warning to neighboring Canada.
At the time, Sheinbaum responded to Trump’s warnings by threatening to impose retaliatory measures.
She later said she had spoken to Trump during an “excellent conversation” in which the two discussed “strengthening collaboration on security issues” and tackling the fentanyl crisis, among other key matters.
