President-elect Donald Trump said this week he intends to rename the Gulf of Mexico once he takes office — but experts say his power to do so will only take him so far. As president, little is stopping Trump from directing federal agencies to adopt the use of his preferred name for the ocean basin, the “Gulf of America.” But the formal process of renaming territories, both at home and abroad, would take greater effort. “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday. “The Gulf of America — what a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate! It’s appropriate.”
There is, in fact, a federal agency in charge of maintaining “uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government,” called the United States Board on Geographic Names. That government board, housed in the U.S. Department of the Interior, “discourages name changes unless there is a compelling reason,” according to its website. “Changing a name merely to correct or re-establish historical usage is not in and of itself a reason to change a name,” the board’s website says. Congress could pass legislation endorsing the proposal, compelling reason or not. Recognizing Congress’ role, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia and close Trump ally, vowed to introduce legislation codifying the name change within minutes of the president-elect’s remarks.
