This month at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, the President-elect of the United States Donald Trump he announced his a new vision on redoing the world map: “We will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring.”
He went to repeat agreeing: “That includes a large area, the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name.”
The Gulf of Mexico, which runs along the eastern coast of Mexico and runs through five southern US states, is the world's most important area for shipping, fishing, oil drilling and other commercial activities. The body of water was baptized in this way more than four hundred years ago Before the US or Mexico existed.
Of course, an amendment not approved by the US President would not require the approval of Mexico or any other country. Additional cartoons that have recently been floated by the incoming leader include: seize the Panama Canalusurp the control of Greenland and to add Canada.
Besides the “beautiful ring” Trump has found a new name coming to the Gulf of Mexico, what he wants to do is in line with his history of fighting Mexico, a country that he says is not made “handlers” and other criminals. And speaking of “beautiful”, Mr. Trump repeatedly asked during his first term as president that Mexico submit a resolution of “a large, beautiful wall” decided to build on the US-Mexico border.
Indeed, Mr. Trump harshly criticizes the United States' southern neighbor for the flow north of “illegal” immigrants and drugs — as if the U.S. wants something illegal and inconsistent. The US habit of destroying other people's countries they have nothing to do with promoting drug trafficking and immigration. And, of course, the US economy does not trust for unscripted and hard-to-use jobs play every role in the equation.
No one will leave the opportunity to repeat the deception, Trump added the following warning to his Gulf of Mexico announcement at Mar-a-Lago: “And Mexico must stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.” However, the reformation of the gulf will put the Mexicans in their place.
At least, the “Gulf of America” project is less complicated than previous ideas that came from Trump's brain, such as shelling Mexico the fight against drug cartels – organizations that exist because of what the US wants and drug violations.
The hullaballoo over the amendment also provides an easy distraction from, you know, real problems — which is exactly what Trump's signature bombastic xenophobia was supposed to do in the first place.
Right-wing US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, for one, was quick to heed Trump's call to arms. Two days after the press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, he issued a document that will name the Gulf of Mexico according to the wishes of the president-elect.
As in on the political website The Hill, the bill “would direct the chairman of the Board on Geographic Names under the secretary of the Interior to rename all records and maps in the state within 180 days of being signed into law”. Greene added his persuasive sales pitch: “That's our gulf. The right name is the Gulf of America, and that's what the whole world should call it.”
It would not be the first time that US politicians have changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico. Associated Press story he recalls the incident in 2012 when a member of the Mississippi legislature introduced a bill to give the name “Gulf of America” to some of the waters surrounding the coast of Mississippi – “a move that the bill's author later called a 'joke'”.
Meanwhile, a little further back in regional time, the Gulf of Mexico had another impressive example of the imperial upheaval that took place in 1914 on the watch of Democratic US President Woodrow Wilson. The website of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum is here a reminder That year's “Incident in Tampico,” the so-called port city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas on the Gulf of Mexico where “American warships were close to the coast to protect American oil.”
Last year, the coup against Mexican President Francisco I Madero took place with the help of the US ambassador to Mexico at the time, creating the regime of General Victoriano Huerta. By 1914, the new US ambassador to Mexico was supporting Huerta's opposition, whose forces had the power to arrest nine US sailors while the American navy continued to remain innocent on the coast.
In a statement issued by the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, “the US military commander in the region demanded a 21-gun salute and an apology from Huerta after the speedy release of the sailors”. The Mexican government refused this, “and President Wilson used the incident as an excuse to ask Congress for permission to invade Mexico by arms”.
And voila: “Recent events led to the occupation of (the port city of) Veracruz by the US military.”
In other words, there are many reasons why people would object to renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
And while Trump's insistence on acting like an independent makes it easy to cast him as a misstep in US foreign policy, at the end of the day, it's plain and simple — and that's one thing you can't do. change the name.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect Al Jazeera's influence.