WASHINGTON — Donald Trump will order the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Mount Denali in his first executive orders.
Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on the social platform X that the Gulf of Mexico will be renamed the Gulf of America and Denali — the highest mountain in North America — will revert to Mount McKinley, its former name until the Obama administration changed it in 2015.
Trump previously floated the idea of renaming the body of water that forms the coastline along five southeastern states, saying he felt “Gulf of America” has a “beautiful ring to it.”
As president, Trump can take the action to rename the body of water, although other countries don’t have to adopt the new name.
The renaming is to honor “American greatness,” according to a preview of the orders posted online by Trump’s incoming press secretary.
Can Trump change the name of the Gulf of Mexico?
Maybe, but it’s not a unilateral decision, and other countries don’t have to go along.
The International Hydrographic Organization — of which both the United States and Mexico are members — works to ensure all the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. There are instances where countries refer to the same body of water or landmark by different names in their own documentation.
It can be easier when a landmark or body of water is within a country’s boundaries. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama approved an order from the Department of Interior to rename Mount McKinley — the highest peak in North America — to Denali, a move that Trump has also said he wants to reverse.
How did the Gulf of Mexico get its name?
The body of water has been depicted with that name for more than four centuries, an original determination believed to have been taken from a Native American city of “Mexico.”