A directive for the Department of Interior to begin formally renaming the Gulf of Mexico landed in the initial barrage of new President Donald Trump executive orders.
“In recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America,” reads one passage in the order. Trump stressed the gulf’s role in oil and gas production, maritime industry and fisheries.
Trump’s Interior secretary Doug Burgum would begin updating the federal Geographic Names Information System, and have the U.S. Board on Geographic Names “provide guidance to ensure all federal references to the Gulf of America, including on agency maps, contracts, and other documents and communications shall reflect its renaming,” the order states.
William McKinley, president during the Spanish-American War of 1898, “championed tariffs to protect U.S. manufacturing, boost domestic production, and drive U.S. industrialization and global reach to new heights,” according to Trump, an advocate for returning to the federal government’s 19th and 20th century use of tariff revenues from imported goods. “He was tragically assassinated in an attack on our Nation’s values and our success, and he should be honored for his steadfast commitment to American greatness.”
Mount McKinley was renamed with its Native Alaskan title of Denali during the administration of former president Barack Obama in 2015. Trump called that “an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice.”
The move drew an immediate reaction from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
“I strongly disagree with the President’s decision on Denali,” Murkowski wrote in a social media post soon after the Monday night order. “Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial.”
Trump supporters and traditionalists have already been weighing in on the “Gulf of America” title. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis invoked the renaming in a Monday night announcement warning of the arrival of a winter storm.
In a Jan. 8 press briefing, Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said the Gulf of Mexico was named in the early 1600s – and joked that North America could be renamed “América Mexicana,” or Mexican America based on a 1814 document of Mexico’s national founding.
