Trump's idea to rebrand Gulf of Mexico would face hurdles -- if he's even serious

WASHINGTON — 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.

“And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country,” the incoming president said.

Trump has also called for the restoring the original names of the nation’s tallest peak, Mount Denali in Alaska, and a major military base in North Carolina, Fort Liberty, drawing bipartisan pushback in the process.

Several Republican lawmakers have already lined up behind his “Gulf of America” proposal.

“I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t have a problem with anything that he’s said,” Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett said Tuesday. “He’s a deal-maker.”

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene immediately pounced on Trump’s remarks, voicing support on social media and television and rolling out legislation that has since drawn co-sponsors ranging from Freedom Caucus members Eric Burlison of Missouri and Andy Ogles of Tennessee to swing-district Rep. Mike Lawler of New York.

Texas freshman Brandon Gill, another co-sponsor of Greene’s bill, told CNN last week that the United States has a “clear strategic interest” in some of Trump’s recent proposals, which include retaking the Panama Canal and acquiring the Danish territory of Greenland.

“President Trump is bringing us into a golden age of America. This is the new Manifest Destiny,” he told the network.

If and when Trump dives into his “Gulf of America” rebranding proposal, he would need to deal with Congress and potentially other entities.

On bodies of water, the International Hydrographic Organization is charged with working with its members “to ensure that all the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted, thereby supporting safety of navigation and the protection of the marine environment,” according to its website.

The United States and Mexico are both members of the IHO, which also “coordinates the activities of national hydrographic offices and sets standards in order to promote uniformity in nautical charts and documents,” the organization states.

But that “uniformity” does not exist across the board. Take the river along the Texas-Mexico border. The United States calls it the Rio Grande. In Mexico, it’s the Rio Bravo.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum fired back at Trump over his latest pledge, saying her country might start referring to the United States as “América Mexicana” or “Mexican America,” The Associated Press reported.

“That sounds nice, no?” Sheinbaum said at a press briefing last week, adding that the Gulf of Mexico had gone by its name since 1607.

In Congress, draft text of Greene’s legislation, which she shared on social media, states that any “reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico shall be deemed to be a reference to the ‘Gulf of America.’”

“The Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shall oversee the implementation of the renaming,” according to the draft.

While Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer accused Trump of trying to “distract America with crazy ideas” with his renaming proposal, he did suggest he might be open to some old-fashioned Washington horse-trading.

“I’d agree to working with Donald Trump on renaming the Gulf of Mexico only if he first agrees to work with us on an actual plan to lower costs for Americans,” the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor last week.

But Trump would likely need almost every House Republican to vote in favor of Greene’s bill should it reach the floor as the chamber’s top Democrat did not sound ready to get on board.

“I think that we’ve got to focus on the issues that matter to the American people: housing costs are too high, grocery costs are too high, insurance costs are too high,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters last week. “Utility costs are too high and child care costs are too high. We have to build an affordable economy for hard-working American taxpayers.”

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to reverse an effort championed by the Biden administration to rename a military base in North Carolina that previously bore the name of a Confederate general. His pick for Defense secretary, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, has said that all military bases once named for Confederate officials should have those names restored, according to media appearances reviewed by CNN.

That list includes Fort Liberty in the Tar Heel State, formerly known as Fort Bragg. Home to the Army’s storied 82nd Airborne Division and the service’s Special Operations Command, it was for over a century named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, who was a slave owner.

The push to rename military bases honoring Confederate veterans gained steam in 2020 after nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Congressional lawmakers authorized the creation of a naming commission of eight former military leaders to study the issue in the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill. The topic was a political flashpoint in 2020, with Trump vetoing the defense measure, in part because of the naming commission, only to be overridden by Congress.

The effort ultimately led to Fort Bragg and eight other U.S. military facilities getting new monikers.

On at least one proposed name switch, Trump would likely be able to go solo.

He has called for Mount Denali in Alaska — the highest peak in North America — to revert to its original name honoring William McKinley, the 25th president.

“They took his name off Mount McKinley,” Trump told supporters in Phoenix on Dec. 22 about the name change initiated in 2015 by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

“He was a great president,” Trump said of McKinley, who has been called something of a kindred spirit to the incoming president due to his tariffs and other protectionist economic policies. “That’s one of the reasons that we’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley, because I think he deserves it.”

Trump would not need to send legislation to Congress nor wait for any cumbersome federal process to rename Mount Denali. Obama’s Interior secretary issued an order to switch the name, which followed years of lobbying efforts by Alaska officials.

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(Roll Call's Mark Satter contributed to this report.)