This month, at a rambling press conference at Mar-a-Lago, US President-elect Donald Trump announced his latest vision for revamping the world map: “We’re going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, There’s a beautiful ring there.”

He went on to reiterate approvingly: "That covers a lot of territory, including the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name."

The Gulf of Mexico, which stretches along much of Mexico's eastern coastline and borders five southern U.S. states, is an important international hub for shipping, fishing, oil drilling and other commercial activities. The body of water was named more than four centuries ago, before the United States or Mexico existed.

Of course, a U.S. president unilaterally renaming the Gulf does not require the approval of Mexico or any other country. Other recent map changes proposed by the new leader include seizing the Panama Canal, seizing control of Greenland and annexing Canada.

In addition to the "beautiful ring" Trump sees in the upcoming new name for the Gulf of Mexico, the proposed move also fits his record of overzealous antagonism toward Mexico, which he has said is populated by "rapists" and other criminals composition. Speaking of "beautiful," Trump repeatedly asked Mexico during his first term to pay for a "big, beautiful wall" he envisioned building along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In fact, Trump viciously blames America’s southern neighbors for “illegal” immigration and the flow of drugs northward — as if America’s demand for illegal substances and America’s bipartisan habit of destroying other countries have nothing to do with fueling drug trafficking and immigration . Of course, the U.S. economy’s reliance on undocumented and exploitable labor doesn’t play any role in this equation, either.

Never one to pass up an opportunity for repeated hypocrisy, Trump appended the following warning to his Mar-a-Lago statement on the Gulf of Mexico: "Mexico must stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country." Either way, the reshaping of the Gulf is sure to happen It will allow Mexicans to reorient themselves.

At the very least, the Gulf of America project is more aggressive than previous ideas that have come to Trump’s mind, such as launching missiles into Mexico to fight drug cartels—groups that happen to owe their existence to concurrent events. Drug demand and criminalization in the United States.

The uproar over the name change also provides a convenient distraction from the real issues — which is what Trump's signature bombastic xenophobia does in the first place.

Among them was far-right U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who immediately responded to Trump's call to arms. Two days after holding a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, she introduced a bill that would rename the Gulf of Mexico in accordance with the president-elect's wishes.

The bill "would direct the chair of the Geographic Names Commission under the Secretary of the Interior to rename all federal documents and maps within 180 days of being signed into law," according to political website The Hill. Green added her own convincing sales pitch: "This is our divide. The correct name is the Gulf of America, and that's what the world should call it."

As it turns out, this isn't the first time a U.S. politician has suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico. An Associated Press article recalled the moment in 2012, when a member of the Mississippi Legislature introduced a bill to name a portion of the water that touches Mississippi beaches the Gulf of America—“This from the bill’s author An act that later became known as a "joke."

Meanwhile, much earlier in the regional timeline, another shocking example of imperial arrogance occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 1914 during the administration of Democratic U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The website of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum commemorates that year's "Tampico Incident," named after the port city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas on the Gulf of Mexico where "U.S. warships anchored off the coast to protect U.S. oil." "interest. "

Last year, General Victoriano Huerta came to power in a coup against Mexican President Francisco I. Madero, aided by the then-U.S. ambassador to Mexico. In 1914, the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico supported Huerta's opposition, and Huerta's troops had the audacity to detain nine American sailors while a fleet of U.S. warships continued to anchor innocently off the coast.

In a version of events provided by the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, "After quickly releasing the sailors, U.S. military commanders in the area asked Huerta to fire a 21-gun salute and apologize." The Mexican government rejected these demands, and "President Wilson used these events as justification for requesting congressional approval for an armed invasion of Mexico."

Lo and behold: “Events soon led to the occupation of Veracruz (the port city) by American troops.”

In other words, one might have many reasons to object to renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

While Trump’s insistence on acting like a caricature makes it easier to dismiss him as some kind of aberration in U.S. foreign policy, at the end of the day, this is imperialism plain and simple — and it’s something you can’t do One thing to note is renaming.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.