The president Donald Trump admitted this Sunday that before deciding to rename the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America," he had seriously considered calling it the Gulf of Trump, an idea he ultimately dismissed for public image reasons.
The revelation occurred during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" program, where Trump humorously discussed the process that led him to choose his current name.
"I must tell you that I was thinking of calling it Trump Gulf, and I decided not to," the leader stated. "I think it may have been a wise decision; I believe it wouldn’t have worked out."
Trump candidly explained the reasoning behind his decision: "I was thinking it would be called Trump's Gulf. And then I said, you know, that's not going to sound very good."
The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico was one of Trump's first actions at the beginning of his second term. On January 20, 2025, the same day as his inauguration, he signed Executive Order 14172, titled "Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness," which directed the Secretary of the Interior to rename the U.S. continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico as "Gulf of America."
The Department of the Interior confirmed that the federal agencies would adopt the new name starting January 24, 2025, and the United States Geological Survey updated its geographic database with the change retroactively to the date of the order.
On February 9, 2025, Trump proclaimed that day as the first "Gulf of America Day" while flying over the area on Air Force One en route to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
The measure generated widespread international controversy. The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, responded by presenting a map from 1607 and suggesting renaming the United States as "Mexican America", arguing that the name "Gulf of Mexico" has over 400 years of history and is recognized by the UN.
Tech companies like Google and Apple adopted the change on their platforms for users in the United States in February 2025, although in Mexico and other countries the maps retain the original name. Sheinbaum even threatened to sue Google over the update.
Florida became, on January 27, 2025 the first state to use the new name in official documents, and Governor Ron DeSantis signed two laws in April 2025 that mandate the change of all references in documents, maps, schools, and state agencies.
The House of Representatives approved in May 2025 the bill known as the "Gulf of America Act of 2025" by 211 votes to 206, although its approval in the Senate remains uncertain.
The executive order has a strictly domestic scope for U.S. federal agencies and is not valid under international law, which is why Mexico, Cuba, and international organizations do not recognize the name change.
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