Donald Trump made news on multiple fronts during his latest Mar-a-Lago press conference, but arguably the strangest development was the president-elect’s announcement about the Gulf of Mexico.
According to the Republican, “we” will soon be “changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.” He added that he believes the new name has “a beautiful ring” to it, adding that as far as he’s concerned, rebranding the body of water would be “appropriate.”
By all appearances, Trump was quite serious about this and gave no indication that he was kidding.
Soon after, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared on a far-right podcast and said she had already directed her staff to “immediately draft legislation” to implement the president-elect’s latest priority. “Congress has to do this,” the Georgia Republican declared, adding: “You better bet we are absolutely going to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Let’s go!”
It’s difficult to say with confidence whether, and to what extent, the incoming president and his allies will pursue this goal. After all, Trump, who has a notoriously short attention span, floats all kinds of weird ideas that he routinely discards. Similarly, hundreds of legislative proposals are introduced every year that go completely ignored.
In other words, Republicans such as Trump and Greene might like the idea of changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be any serious follow-through.
But while the political world waits to see whether the GOP invests any meaningful time and effort into this weird goal, a related question hangs overhead: Is this even possible?
My MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem made the case that this is at least theoretically possible, since U.S. presidents have the authority to “change the names of landmarks.”
The Washington Post published a related report along these lines: The U.S. Board on Geographic Names is a federal interagency organization that is responsible for maintaining uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government. The board operates under the interior secretary. The board’s Foreign Names Committee is responsible for standardizing foreign place names. The committee is composed of representatives from federal agencies, including several appointees specializing in geography and cartography. Members are appointed every two years. While the BGN does not create names for geographical features, it approves or rejects names proposed by others based on its established policies.
Trump’s choice to serve as the interior secretary, for what it’s worth, is North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who seems eager to go along with the incoming president’s wishes. All of which is to say, it is at least possible for Republicans to pursue such a name change, though it would lead to a related challenge: As Zeeshan’s piece added, if the Trump administration succeeded on this, “that doesn’t mean other countries will go along with changing the name of a massive body of water whose name dates back more than four centuries.” As for how our neighbors to the south feel about all of this, Bloomberg News reported that Mexico’s president responded to Trump’s idea by suggesting that instead of changing the name of the Gulf, she’s wondering about renaming part of the United States. A day after the incoming US president said the body of water between his country, Mexico and the Caribbean should be called the “Gulf of America,” Claudia Sheinbaum presented early maps of the Americas at her daily press briefing. The Gulf of Mexico’s name has held since the early 17th century and is recognized by the United Nations, she said. Sheinbaum also joked that states including California and Texas could revert to their former name, “America Mexicana.”
“It sounds good, doesn’t it?” Sheinbaum rhetorically asked reporters.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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