Claims that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he intends to rename the Gulf of Mexico — the ocean basin that borders the U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida — the “Gulf of America” circulated on social media (archived) in early January 2025.
While social media users debated whether Trump was being serious about the proposal, others wondered if such a change was even possible. Â
Whether or not it could logistically happen — which CBS News reports is possible within the U.S., though “other nations would have no obligation to follow suit” — the claim that Trump said he will rename the Gulf of Mexico is true.Â
During a news conference held at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump spoke on a multitude of subjects, including Mexico. He made the statement during a segment of his remarks discussing cracking down on illegal border crossings and imposing tariffs on Mexico.Â
Captured on video broadcast by major outlets like The Associated Press, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and C-SPAN, Trump’s full statement was:
We have a massive deficit with Mexico. We help Mexico a lot. They’re essentially run by the cartels. Can’t let that happen. Mexico’s really in trouble. Lot of trouble. Very dangerous place. We’re going to be announcing at a future date, pretty soon, we’re going to change — because we do most of the work there and it’s ours — we’re going to be changing… sort of the opposite of Biden, where he’s closing everything up, essentially getting rid of 50 to 60 trillion dollars worth of assets, we’re gonna 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. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop ’em. And we’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Because Canada, they come through Canada too. And the drugs that are coming through are at record numbers. Record numbers. So we’re going to make up for that by putting tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Substantial tariffs. And we wanna get along with everybody but, you know, they have to… it’s gotta… it takes two to tango.Â
Shortly after Trump’s speech, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stated on social media (archived) that she was already working on legislation to implement the change.Â
The Gulf of Mexico has been so named since the sixteenth century. According to the Texas State Historical Association, a nonprofit documenting Texas state history since 1897:Â
The Gulf itself remained nameless until the early 1540s, being considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean or “North Sea.” The Spanish name most often applied to it was Seno Mexicano (seno = “gulf” or “bay”), although it was occasionally referred to in maps and documents as Golfo de Nueva España, Golfo de México, or a variant. For more than a century and a half after its discovery, it remained a sacrosanct “Spanish sea,” forbidden to other nations.
This is not the first time a name change for the Gulf of Mexico has been proposed. In 2012, Mississippi Rep. Stephen Holland introduced an unsuccessful bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, at least within the state. According to a report by NPR, the bill was meant to be satire.Â
Sources
– YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IVbnDFQhrE4. Accessed 7 Jan. 2025.
—. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3Mqme7nz1cM. Accessed 7 Jan. 2025.
—. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXj7HWem5fg. Accessed 7 Jan. 2025.
—. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfq8CRYM9U. Accessed 7 Jan. 2025.
—. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vGRX41PiqaQ. Accessed 7 Jan. 2025.
Association, Texas State Historical. “Gulf of Mexico.” Texas State Historical Association, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/gulf-of-mexico. Accessed 7 Jan. 2025.
Bradner, Eric. “Key Lines from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago News Conference | CNN Politics.” CNN, 7 Jan. 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/07/politics/trump-news-conference-key-lines/index.html.
Stephen , Holland. Gulf of America; Body of Water South of Mississippi Shall Be Known as, for All Official Purposes. 150, https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2012/pdf/HB/0100-0199/HB0150IN.pdf.
“Trump Says He Will Change the Name of the Gulf of Mexico.” AP News, 7 Jan. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-gulf-of-mexico-bc438f4feca1234475a1adef99344da7.
Watson, Kathryn. Trump Says He Wants to Change Gulf of Mexico’s Name to “Gulf of America” – CBS News. 7 Jan. 2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-change-gulf-of-mexico-to-gulf-of-america/.
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Publish date : 2025-01-07 10:41:00
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