What is Gulf of Mexico? Why Donald Trump will change the name 'Gulf of America'
Gulf Of America refers to President-elect Donald Trump's statement about his intention to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America." Trump justified this change during a news conference held in early January 2025, suggesting the new name reflects a broader vision of American ownership and identity.
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The controversial remark became a viral topic across social media, including Reddit and X / Twitter, where some users criticized the President's attempt to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico while others celebrated it. The statement also resulted in numerous users making jokes and memes about the potential name change.
On January 7th, 2025, President-elect Donald Trump announced, during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, "We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring." He stated that the new name would be more representative of the United States.
Why is Trump talking about renaming the Gulf of Mexico?
Since his first run for the White House in 2016, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Mexico over a number of issues, including border security and the imposition of tariffs on imported goods. He vowed then to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The U.S. ultimately constructed or refurbished about 450 miles of wall during his first term.
The Gulf of Mexico is often referred to as the United States’ “Third Coast” due to its coastline across five southeastern states. Mexicans use a Spanish version of the same name for the gulf: “El Golfo de México.”
Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.
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What is Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean,mostly surrounded by the North American continent.[3] It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; and on the southeast by Cuba. The Southern U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which border the gulf on the north, are often referred to as the "Third Coast" of the United States (in addition to its Atlantic and Pacific coasts).
The Gulf of Mexico took shape approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics.The Gulf of Mexico basin is roughly oval in shape and is approximately 810 nautical miles (1,500 km; 930 mi) wide. Its floor consists of sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Straits of Florida between the U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba. Because of its narrow connection to the Atlantic Ocean, the gulf experiences very small tidal ranges.
The size of the gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2 (620,000 sq mi). Almost half of the basin consists of shallow continental shelf waters. The volume of water in the basin is roughly 2.4×106 cubic kilometers (5.8×105 cubic miles). The gulf is one of the most important offshore petroleum production regions in the world, making up one-sixth of the United States' total production.
| President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” a name he said has a “beautiful ring to it.” It’s his latest suggestion to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st State,” demanded that Denmark consider ceding Greenland, and called for Panama to return the Panama Canal. |
