Donald Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ remark sparks hilarious social media reactions

  

After President-elect Donald Trump proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America“ on Tuesday, others have offered their alternative names.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott seemed to lock in on his favorite idea on Wednesday.

“If we are going to rename things … this is the move,” Abbott posted.

Abbott’s idea came from an account on X, the application formerly known as Twitter, from The Salty Dog Galveston. The post stated, “We all know what it really is,” followed by its suggestion: “Gulf of Texas.”

Other places, such as the San Antonio Zoo, poked fun at the topic and proposed to change the name to “Gulf of Tupi” on its Instagram page.

Texas Inspiration, via its Facebook page on Wednesday, suggested that the Gulf of Mexico name be changed to “Gulf of Buc-ee’s.”

Texas Inspiration threw in another suggestion on Thursday: “Whatagulf.”

On Wednesday, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum had a sarcastic reaction to the proposal.

Standing before a global map in her daily press briefing, Sheinbaum proposed dryly that North America should be renamed “América Mexicana,” or “Mexican America,” because a founding document dating from 1814 that preceded Mexico’s constitution referred to it that way.

Despite the tongue-in-cheek responses to Trump’s comment, there have been repeated clashes between the president-elect and Mexico officials since his first run for the White House in 2016.

It’s his latest suggestion to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st State,” demanded that Denmark consider ceding Greenland, and called for Panama to return the Panama Canal.

Why is Trump talking about renaming the Gulf of Mexico?

Since his first run for the White House in 2016, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Mexico over a number of issues, including border security and the imposition of tariffs on imported goods. He vowed then to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The U.S. ultimately constructed or refurbished about 450 miles of wall during his first term.

The Gulf of Mexico is often referred to as the United States’ “Third Coast” due to its coastline across five southeastern states. Mexicans use a Spanish version of the same name for the gulf: “El Golfo de México.”

Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the 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 go along.

The International Hydrographic Organization — of which both the United States and Mexico are members — works to ensure all the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. There are instances where countries refer to the same body of water or landmark by different names in their own documentation.

It can be easier when a landmark or body of water is within a country’s boundaries. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama approved an order from the Department of Interior to rename Mount McKinley — the highest peak in North America — to Denali, a move that Trump has also said he wants to reverse.

Just after Trump’s comments on Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said during an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson that she would direct her staff to draft legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, a move she said would take care of funding for new maps and administrative policy materials throughout the federal government.

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