Following an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DoI) announced on Friday that the Gulf of Mexico will now be referred to as the “Gulf of America.”
Trump announced on Monday that a body of water between the east coast of Mexico and the south coast of the United States would be renamed in honor of “American greatness.”
Since the sixteenth century, the Gulf of Mexico has been known by this name.
“For us it will continue to be the Gulf of Mexico and for the entire world it will continue to be the Gulf of Mexico,” stated Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday.
The DoI also announced that Denali, the highest mountain in North America, would be renamed to its former name, Mount McKinley.
Under then-President Barack Obama, the mountain was formally renamed in 2015 at the state of Alaska’s request following years of disagreement.
Given that the mountain has held particular meaning for the Indigenous people of Alaska for centuries, the name change was an act of cultural respect.
William McKinley, the previous president of the United States from Ohio, “never visited, nor did he have any significant historical connection to, the mountain or Alaska,” according to the 2015 decree renaming the mountain Denali.
Echoing Trump’s directive, the DoI stated that the “name restorations … honor the legacy of American greatness.”
“These changes reaffirm the nation’s commitment to preserving the extraordinary heritage of the United States and ensuring that future generations of Americans celebrate the legacy of its heroes and historic assets,” the statement continued.
The DoI added that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names was “working expeditiously to update the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System to reflect these changes, effective immediately for federal use.”