“Gulf of Mexico” doesn’t sound right to President-elect Donald Trump. He’s got a different name in mind for the body of water west of Florida and south of Alabama, Texas and Mississippi.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,” Trump said at a news conference Tuesday. “That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate.”
How a body of water gets its name is a mix of history and consensus. The name “Gulf of Mexico” dates to the Spanish exploration of the region in the 1500s. Today, the International Hydrographic Organization, which strives to provide a common standard for the charting of seas, refers to the Gulf of Mexico when defining the body’s borders.
It’s unclear what Trump could do to change the global agreement on what to call the Gulf.
But he could direct the federal government to change how it refers to the body of water. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, the U.S. representative from Georgia, said she would direct her staff to write a bill renaming the body of water.
Jack Davis, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea,” said Trump’s comments were in keeping with a long history of American leaders feeling they own the Gulf.
America is the Gulf’s biggest polluter, and the country exploits the body of water for its natural resources far more than the other Gulf countries, Davis said. Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president, enacted the Louisiana Purchase in part to control commerce in the Gulf. He also tried to purchase Cuba from the Spanish for similar reasons, Davis noted.
The off-the-cuff pronouncement less than two weeks before his second inauguration is vintage Trump. For his entire political career, the president has proven adept at grabbing headlines and has been interested in expanding America’s reach on the map.
For weeks, he’s floated the idea of adding Canada as the 51st state, seizing control of the Panama Canal and adding Greenland as a territory.
On Tuesday, he refused to rule out using the U.S. military to achieve those last two goals.
“It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country,” Trump said. “We need Greenland for national security purposes.”
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Kirby Wilson is a politics reporter, covering the leaders of Florida and explaining the political landscape. Reach him at kwilson@tampabay.com.
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