Donald Trump’s out-of-the-blue pledge to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” — as well as some of his other renaming ideas — would likely take more than the stroke of a presidential pen to make good on.
During a wide-ranging press conference last week at his Florida resort, the president-elect said a name change for the body of water that touches five southern states would be “appropriate.” He even appeared to float using a potential name change to pressure Mexican officials to do more to curb the flow of undocumented migrants across the U.S. border.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,” Trump said on Jan. 7. “That covers a lot of territory, the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate.”
