President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he would move to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” saying the name “has a beautiful ring.”
His latest proposal is to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. President Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st state,” called on Denmark to consider ceding Greenland, and called on Panama to take back the Panama Canal.
Here’s a look at his comments and what’s behind his name.
Why is President Trump talking about renaming the Gulf of Mexico?
Since first running for the White House in 2016, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Mexico over a number of issues, including border security and imposing tariffs on imported goods. He then vowed to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The United States ultimately built or renovated approximately 450 miles of wall during his first term.
The Gulf of Mexico is sometimes referred to as the “Third Coast” of the United States because its coastline spans five southeastern states. Mexicans call the bay the same name in Spanish: “El Golfo de Mexico.”
Americans and Mexicans are divided over what to call another important body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande. Mexicans call it Rio Bravo.
Can President Trump change the name of the Gulf of Mexico?
Perhaps, but it is not a unilateral decision and other countries do not need to follow.
The International Hydrographic Organization, whose members include the United States and Mexico, strives to ensure that all the world’s seas, oceans, and navigable waters are uniformly surveyed and charted, some of which even have names. I am. Countries may refer to the same body of water or landmarks by different names in their national documents.
It may be easier if the landmark or body of water is within a country’s boundaries. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama approved an order by the Interior Department to change the name of North America’s highest peak, Mount McKinley, to Denali, a change Trump has said he also wants to reverse.
Shortly after President Trump’s comments on Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said in an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson that she would direct her staff to draft a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico. He said that he would give consideration to funding. For new maps and administrative policy materials throughout the federal government.
What is the origin of the name Gulf of Mexico?
This body of water has been described by that name for over four centuries, and it is believed that the name was taken from the Native American city of Mexico.
Has renaming the Gulf of Mexico ever been talked about?
yes. In 2012, Mississippi lawmakers proposed a bill that would rename a portion of the bay that borders Mississippi’s coast to “American Bight,” but the bill’s authors later called the move a “joke.” is. The bill, which was referred to committee, was not passed.
Two years ago, comedian Stephen Colbert said on his show that in response to the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the port was destroyed because “we broke it, we bought it.” He joked that the island should be renamed “American Bay.”
Are there other international disputes over place names?
The name of the Sea of Japan has been a long-standing dispute between Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Russia, with South Korea claiming that the current name did not come into common use until it came under Japanese rule. There is. At the 2020 International Hydrographic Organization meeting, member states agreed on a plan to replace names with numerical identifiers and develop a new digital standard for modern geographic information systems.
Although the Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, the use of “Gulf” or “Arabian Gulf” is predominant in many countries in the Middle East. In 2012, the Iranian government threatened to sue Google over its decision not to show any bodies of water on its maps.
There have been other conversations about waters, including with President Trump’s 2016 opponent. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience in 2013 that, according to Chinese logic, China has territorial rights over most of the South China Sea, according to documents uncovered by WikiLeaks in a hack of the campaign chair’s personal account. He said that the United States claimed territory after World War II. II could have called the Pacific Ocean the “American Sea.”
