Georgia GOP firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene has promised to introduce a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America as soon as possible.
Greene took to President-elect Donald Trump’s platform Truth Social to share a clip of the former and incoming president pitching the name change.
“President @realDonaldTrump’s second term is off to a GREAT start. I’ll be introducing legislation ASAP to officially change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to its rightful name, the Gulf of America!” she wrote.
Trump appeared at a press conference Tuesday where he floated the name change, while blasting Mexico for supposedly taking advantage of the U.S. on trade and immigration.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” he said. “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate…And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”
He claimed that Mexico “can stop them and we’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada because Canada, they come through Canada, too.”“I’ve directed my staff to immediately begin drafting legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Greene continued. “This is important to begin funding the changing of maps for all agencies within the federal government, like the FAA and the military.”
Some House Republicans have already started using the new name.
“The Gulf of Mexico, or Gulf of America … I’ve spent some of my best days on that water,” Georgia Rep. Austin Scott said on Fox Business. “I don’t think the name of it is as important as how we’re going to handle the law enforcement in that area.”
“There’s a tremendous amount of illegal activity that occurs in that body of water, and I think that … the President is intent on stopping whether it be the illegal fishing and the cartels are illegally fishing in that gulf … the illegal transitting across the Gulf that’s bringing narcotic narcotics and drugs in our country,” he added. “So whether it’s called Gulf of America, or Gulf of Mexico, I care more about the enforcement mechanism.”
Texas Republican Rep. Brandon Gill appeared on CNN Wednesday, saying that “President Trump is bringing us into a golden age of America. This is the new Manifest Destiny. Reacquiring the Panama Canal, acquiring Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This is the light of America expanding.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Trump’s suggestion of changing the name of the gulf, pointing to a 17th-century map of Mexico when large parts of what is now the U.S. were part of the country.
“We are going to call it América Mexicana. It sounds pretty, no?” she said.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said during a press conference Wednesday that “House Democrats believe that we are not sent to Washington to invade Greenland, rename the Gulf of Mexico, or seize the Panama Canal by force.”
“We were sent to Washington to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America,” he added. “America is too expensive for working-class families and for middle-class folks all across the country that should be our mission, and that’s what we’re going to focus on over the next few years.”
Similarly, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday that “Donald Trump is in over his head. So he’s doing what he always does in times like this: distract America with crazy ideas. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico may be a zany new idea, but it isn’t going to help people save money at the grocery store.”
During his press conference, Trump didn’t share any additional details about how he would go about making the name change, but it did lead to questions about whether a president has the authority to rename an international body of water, prompting Greene to put forward legislation on the matter.
