Renaming the Gulf of Mexico: An Act of Arrogance and Ignorance

On January 20th, 2025, Donald Trump signed the Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness executive order. This executive order renamed two geographical features. Mount Denali in Alaska was reverted back to Mount McKinley and the Gulf of Mexico was renamed to the Gulf of America. The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, unlike the reverting of Denali to McKinley, was an unprecedented act. The title of the executive order would suggest that the newly chosen names were names that had already been used to refer to these locations in times past, yet as John Sledge writes in his book The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History, since the mid-17th century the Gulf of Mexico has been the most widely recognized and consistent name for this body of water. No other name has been commonly or officially used by any other country, including the United States. As someone who has spent the majority of my twenty-eight years living on the Gulf coast of Florida, I can speak from my personal experience that besides the informal version “The Gulf” I have never heard anyone refer to the Gulf of Mexico by any other name.

So, if “restoration” is not the objective of this name change what is? Well, that seems to be fairly obvious. Donald Trump’s brand of America-first nationalism celebrates and promotes the idea of American exceptionalism (even if somewhat dimmed) and seeks to export this sentiment to the rest of the world. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico has nothing to do with tradition or a reversion to what used to be, it is a quick way for Donald Trump to make a political statement that promotes America and scores easy points with his supporters. 

While I am not a Trump supporter, I am a proud American that believes in my country and her values. I would hope that every American citizen wants their country promoted. But I also think that regardless of my opinion or political leanings, decisions should be made for good reasons that take the details into account, for those are where they say the Devil is.

There is a good reason to revert the name of Mount Denali to Mount McKinley. William McKinley was an American president who fought for the Union in the Civil War, seeing combat at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam as well as the Shenandoah Valley campaign. By all accounts he was a devoted husband to his epileptic wife, Ida, who constantly needed his presence after the premature death of both of their daughters broke her irrevocably. Personally, I do not agree with many of the policy decisions McKinley made during his years as President, but as a man, as a human being I respect him. He made sacrifices for his country and for others, many times at the cost of his own well-being. 

But is there a similarly good reason to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America? Arguably we should have an even better reason, after all Mount McKinley had precedent, name recognition, tradition and custom to back it up. The Gulf of America has none of those things. The most logical argument for adopting the new name becomes apparent as soon as one looks at a map. The United States possesses the majority of the coastline surrounding this body of water. This undeniable fact almost immediately makes one wonder, “Why DO we call it the Gulf of MEXICO? Why have we EVER called it the Gulf of Mexico? Have Americans been cheated out of calling it OUR Gulf this whole time?” It is when we begin to ask these questions that an inconvenient truth of American history unravels.

Lines on a map, just like names, can change. On September 27, 1821, after an eleven-year struggle with its Spanish colonial overlords, the colony of New Spain became the independent nation of Mexico. After achieving independence, the territory of Mexico stretched from the Yucatan peninsula in the south, to the Arkansas river in the north, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean, comprising all of the land which today houses the U.S. states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, most of Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Oklahoma. In short, Mexico in 1821 possessed what modern Americans know as the Southwest and Pacific Coast regions of America and the Lone Star State in its entirety.