Trump says he’s renaming Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’
President-elect Donald Trump told reporters he plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
Grab your Sharpies. We’re going to be making some changes to our maps.
You may have heard that President-elect Donald Trump held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago and said he has big plans for when he moves back into the White House — including renaming the water off the west coast of Florida.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory,” he said. “Gulf of America. What a beautiful name.”
Some have noted that this gulf’s shoreline is about 3,500 miles, with more than half of it bordering Mexico’s coast. And that maps labeling the water as the “Gulf of Mexico” go back to a time before the United States even was a country. And that changing the name isn’t going to, say, change the price of eggs.
Some have said we have more important things to worry about. Not me. I say this should be just the start to Making America Sound More American.
∎ Mexico Beach. The town on Florida’s Panhandle, devastated by Hurricane Michael during Trump’s first term, is a natural starting point. It becomes America Beach, not to be confused with American Beach, the historic community in Nassau County where African-Americans vacationed when they weren’t allowed to go to places like Mexico Beach.
∎ New Mexico. Another obvious one. The 47th president renames the 47th state! New Mexico becomes New America.
But why stop at renaming things with Mexico in the name? From Melbourne (Florida) to Paris (Texas), we have maps full of names — bodies of water, rivers, cities, mountains — that come from places in other countries.
There’s even a town in Indiana that the founders wanted to name American City, but it was already taken and the town became Ireland, Indiana. Today, though, America City in Kansas is a ghost town. So maybe that name is up for grabs. Here’s looking at you, Panama City.
And what about the other side of Florida?
∎ The Atlantic Ocean. The body of water on the east coast of Florida got its name from Greek mythology, the “Sea of Atlas.”
Before he became president, Trump once said if we had debt like Greece, we would “become a country that’s unsalvageable.” He cited $24 trillion as the tipping point for America. We blew past that amount in his first term and now, it seems, aren’t too too concerned about raising it even higher. But names of bodies of water are a pressing issue. So why keep that Greek name?
The Atlantic Ocean becomes the East America Ocean and the Pacific Ocean becomes the West America Ocean.
∎ The Great Lakes. Make them the Make America Great Lakes. Sure, some of their waters are part of another country, Canada. Well, for now. We apparently have visions of annexing Canada and creating a country that stretches all the way from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of America.
∎ Greenland. We also have visions of buying Greenland, or maybe even using military force to take it. (In his Mar-a-Lago press conference, Trump refused to rule out the latter.) And once we do that, it’s clear what we should do next. Extract minerals? Sure, eventually. But first things first. Rename it after Lee Greenwood. Greenwoodland.
But back to the Gulf of America. We’ll also have to rewrite some songs.
Americans have written lots of songs about the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes with lyrics that rhyme with Mexico. Clint Black sings about the south winds starting to blow in the Gulf of Mexico. Steve Earle sings about an endless sky above and restless sea below, and every blessing flowing from the Gulf of Mexico.
But, hey, Gulf of America has a beautiful ring.
Georgia Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene said she will sponsor a bill to rename the Gulf, posting on social media: “Congress has to take the Trump Agenda mandate seriously and that means acting fast to enact it.”
The Gulf of America does sound like a good place to have a cold can of “America” — the name Anheuser-Busch temporarily gave its beer back in 2016 — and some French fries. Or should I say “freedom fries?” Might be time to permanently rename those. (But, based on the praise for Vladimir Putin, we’ll probably still be drinking White Russians.)
Our maps also are full of names that go back to the people who were here long before there even was an America, from Lake Okeechobee in Florida to Denali in Alaska. But that could be changing.
The incoming president also has said he’s going to re-rename America’s tallest mountain, replacing its Native Alaskan name, the one long preferred by Alaskans, with the one a gold prospector gave it in 1896 to honor a presidential candidate. Mount Musk, I mean, McKinley.
Our maps also are full of names in other languages: Los Angeles (Spanish for “the Angels”), El Paso (“the Pass”), Las Vegas (“the Meadows Full of Casinos”).
The incoming president has said that when we’re in America, we should be using English.
So maybe a prominent resort in Florida should be renamed “Sea to Lake.”
That’s the English translation of the current name, which admittedly has a ring to it, but is in the primary language of, among other countries, Mexico.
Mar-a-Lago.
(904) 359-4212
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=678540280a0d42c8bcef80308dc7dd2d&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jsonline.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fcolumns%2Fmark-woods%2F2025%2F01%2F10%2Fwhy-stop-at-gulf-of-america-mar-a-lago-among-other-renaming-candidates%2F77549213007%2F&c=7151233064501928605&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2025-01-10 02:09:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
