Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Tuesday she is drafting a bill to officially rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, as she moves to implement one of the president-elect’s latest territorial ideas Donald Trump.
Ms Greene said it is American power that controls and protects the Gulf, and therefore America should get the naming rights.
“This is our abyss. The rightful name is America’s Gulf and that’s what the whole world should call it,” the Georgia Republican said.
She said the bill is being drafted and will be formally introduced on Thursday.
Mr. Trump has become obsessed with geography in recent weeks.
He suggested that Greenland and Canada become part of the United States and said he was in negotiations with Panama to regain control of the Panama Canal.
He floated the idea of renaming the Gulf on Tuesday, during a news conference in which he complained about cartels using the Gulf to transport drugs.
“We’re going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,” he said. “That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name and it is appropriate.
Ms. Greene’s current bill directs the federal government to begin using the name “Gulf of America” in its regular operations and to update maps and documents to reflect that.
The name Gulf of Mexico has been used for more than four centuries to describe the waters south of the United States and east of Mexico.
Mexico claims a slightly larger Gulf coastline than the United States.
Political issues affect the names of many geographic entities around the world.
For example, the Persian Gulf is referred to as the Persian Gulf in the Arab countries bordering it, while some Irish nationalists refuse to say “Northern Ireland”, seeing the term as an acknowledgment of the island’s division, instead referring to the “northern Ireland” when necessary.
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