President Trump Makes it Official: Gulf of Mexico renamed Gulf of America (In the U.S.)
On February 9th President Donald Trump signed an executive order officially changing the name of the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America. Photo by U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
In the United States, the Gulf of Mexico is a thing of the past.
Employees at the Federal Board on Geographic Names have formally changed the name to the Gulf of America as a part of President Donald Trump's first executive orders. This change has no effect on what other countries call it, and Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has promised to ignore the order and asked others to do the same.
Trump flew in Air Force 1 over the newly labeled Gulf of America on Super Bowl Sunday, while declaring the day as the "first-ever Gulf of America Day." Traveling with the president, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum shared on social media an official U.S. Geological Survey map image showing the new name.
According to the original executive order signed in late January, President Trump said that the Gulf plays a “pivotal role” in the security and economic prosperity of the United States, and should therefore be named after the U.S. instead of Mexico.
“The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America,” said President Trump.
Because the United States has territorial rights over wide areas of the Gulf, it is able to rename the territorial waters on an official basis. When Google users use the company’s Maps tool, they will see “Gulf of America” if they are doing those searches within the United States.
Other countries, including Mexico, have not honored this change, meaning that users in Mexico will continue to see “Gulf of Mexico” on their maps.
“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” said Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”
President Sheinbaum has since threatened to take Google to court, saying that a civil suit could be on the table if Google does not correct the designation in countries outside of the U.S.
Google has since confirmed in a letter to Mexico that people using maps in Mexico will continue to see “Gulf of Mexico” however other countries will see both names.
Sheinbaum said Mexico is sending a new letter back to Google, which reads “any reference to the ‘Gulf of America’ initiative on your Google Maps platform must be strictly limited to the marine area under U.S. jurisdiction.” Google has yet to respond to President Sheinbaum.
The name change also caused the Associated Press to be barred from media events after the news outlet refused to use the new name “Gulf of America” in its style guide used by journalists worldwide.
President Trump will continue to ignore any criticism of the name and looks to keep it as the “Gulf of America” for as long as he is in office. “The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name,” said President Trump.