TALLAHASSEE — President Donald Trump moved quickly during his first day in office to formally change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” and Gov. Ron DeSantis has already adopted the rebranding in Florida.
Trump on Monday signed a slew of executive orders, and among them was the order to rename the Gulf of Mexico — something he’d promised weeks earlier to do, and teased during his inaugural address. That same day, DeSantis sent out his own declaration, adopting the change in language in an emergency order about extreme weather arriving Tuesday in the northern reaches of Florida.
Trump still faces international headwinds in his effort to lexically take over the international body of water, but DeSantis wasted no time in adopting Trump’s new name for the gulf. The order opened by declaring that “an area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America, interacting with Arctic air, will bring widespread impactful winter weather to North Florida beginning Tuesday…”
In the order, DeSantis empowered Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie to dispense and manage the state’s resources as needed to respond to what he anticipated to be up to three inches of snow in the Panhandle, ice and freezing rain that will lead to “hazardous driving conditions” through Wednesday “leading to possible roadway and bridge closures across North Florida.”
DeSantis also activated the Florida State Guard and “the Florida National Guard, as needed, to deal with this emergency.”
Under the order, pharmacists may dispense early a one-month refill request for people who reside within affected counties in north or north-central Florida. The order doesn’t list specific affected counties.
The governor noted in the order that it is illegal to price gouge in affected areas “any essential commodity including, but not limited to, supplies, services, provisions, or equipment that is necessary for consumption or use as a direct result of the emergency.”
The executive order will expire in two months unless the governor extends it. In the meantime, he authorized the Florida Housing Finance Corp., which oversees affordable housing in the state, to “distribute funds in connection with this emergency.”
Alexandra Glorioso is a state government reporter for the Miami Herald and is based in Tallahassee.
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