President Donald Trump admitted this Sunday that, before deciding to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America,' he had seriously considered calling it the 'Gulf of Trump,' an idea he ultimately discarded for public image reasons. The revelation came during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures,' where Trump spoke humorously about the process that led him to choose the current name. 'And then I said, you know, that's not going to play too well.' The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico was one of Trump's first measures at the start of his second term. 'I have to tell you, I was thinking of calling it the Gulf of Trump, and I decided not to,' stated the U.S. leader. On January 20, 2025, the same day of his inauguration, he signed Executive Order 14172, titled 'Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness,' which instructed the Secretary of the Interior to rename the U.S. continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America.' The Department of the Interior confirmed that federal agencies would adopt the new name starting January 24, 2025, and the U.S. Geological Survey updated its geographic database retroactively to the date of the order. On February 9, 2025, Trump proclaimed that day as the first 'Gulf of America Day' while flying over the area on Air Force One en route to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. President Claudia Sheinbaum responded by showing a 1607 map and suggesting renaming the United States 'Mexican America,' arguing that the name 'Gulf of Mexico' has over 400 years of history and is recognized by the UN. Tech companies like Google and Apple adopted the change on their platforms for users in the U.S. in February 2025, though in Mexico and the rest of the world, maps retain the original name. 'I think maybe it was a wise decision, I think that maybe that wouldn't have worked.' Trump explained frankly the reasoning behind his decision: 'I was thinking about, it's going to be called the Gulf of Trump.'
