Can Trump really rename the Gulf of Mexico?
phosphorusResident-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he will try to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” a name he said “sounds beautiful.”
It's his latest proposal to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. Trump has repeatedly called Canada the “51st country,” asked Denmark to consider ceding Greenland, and called on Panama to return the Panama Canal.
Read more: Trump treats the world like a monopoly committee
Here's what he said and what his name means.
Why is Trump talking about renaming the Gulf of Mexico?
Since first running for the White House in 2016, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Mexico over a range of issues, including border security and the imposition of tariffs on imported goods. He vowed at the time to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The United States ultimately built or refurbished approximately 450 miles of wall during his first term.
The Gulf of Mexico is often called the “Third Coast” of the United States because its coastline spans five southeastern states. Mexicans use the Spanish version of the bay of the same name: “El Golfo de México”.
Americans and Mexicans are at odds over another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. boundaries between. Americans call it Rio Grande; Mexicans call it Rio Bravo.
Can Trump change the name of the Gulf of Mexico?
Maybe, but it's not a unilateral decision and other countries don't have to agree.
The United States and Mexico are both members of the International Hydrographic Organization, which works to ensure uniform surveying and mapping of all the world's oceans and navigable waters, and to names some of them. In some cases, countries use different names in their respective documents to refer to the same body of water or landmark.
This is easier when the landmark or body of water is within the borders of the country. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama approved an Interior Department order to rename Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak, a move Trump also said he wanted to reverse.
Following Trump's comments on Tuesday, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said in an interview with podcaster Bennie Johnson that she would direct her staff to draft legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, a move she said would address Funding Matters Get new maps and administrative policy materials across the federal government.
Where did the Gulf of Mexico get its name?
This body of water has been described by this name for more than four centuries, an initial decision believed to be taken from the Native American city of “Mexico.”
Has renaming the Gulf of Mexico been proposed before?
Yes. In 2012, a member of the Mississippi Legislature introduced a bill to rename the portion of the bay that touches the state's beaches “American Bay,” a move the bill's author later called a “joke.” The bill was referred to a committee but did not pass.
Two years ago, comedian Stephen Colbert joked on his show that in the wake of the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it should be renamed the “American Gulf” because “we broke it, we bought it” Get off it.”
Are there other international disputes over place names?
There is a long-running dispute between Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia over the name of the Sea of Japan, with South Korea arguing that the current name was not commonly used before Japan ruled the country. At the 2020 International Hydrographic Organization meeting, member states agreed on a plan to replace names with numerical identifiers and develop new digital standards for modern geographical information systems.
The Persian Gulf has been known by this name since the 16th century, although “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” dominate many countries in the Middle East. In 2012, the Iranian government threatened to sue Google over the company's decision not to mark the body of water on its maps.
There have been other discussions about the water body, including from Trump's 2016 opponents. According to leaked material from the campaign chairman's personal account leaked by WikiLeaks, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience in 2013 that according to China's logic, it claimed almost all of the South China Sea, which after the war was United States I could have called the Pacific Ocean the “American Sea.”
——Kinard reported from Chapin, South Carolina.