The New and Improved Gulf of America

Stacey May

The former Gulf of Mexico has now been changed to Gulf of America after an executive order signed by President Donald Trump after he took office on Jan 20. 

This change has been formally updated on Google and Apple Maps. Google said that American’s will see “Gulf of America,” Mexican’s will still see “Gulf of Mexico,” and everywhere else in the world will see "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)."

Apple has only updated this for American’s so far and has said the rest of the world will be updated later.  

The order was signed to honor American greatness. This act also changed the highest mountain in America back to Mount McKinley.

This was after President Obama changed it to Denali in 2015. The name Mount McKinley honors former President, William McKinley.  

Trump has also proclaimed Feb. 9 as “Gulf of America Day,” and that it is a holiday the American people should celebrate.  

President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has argued that this is not legal because of a United Nations Convention.

The Law of the Sea states a country’s sovereign territory only extends 12 nautical miles from the coastline so she argued that Trump has no power over what the body of water is called. The Gulf has been referred to as the Gulf of Mexico for over 400 years.  

The Mexican government is currently deciding if they should sue Google for renaming The Gulf on their maps.

Google has stated that they apply name changes when it has been updated in official government sources and that they have done this for a long time. 

The Associated Press (AP) said they would not be changing the name of The Gulf of Mexico in their style guide.

The AP Style Guide is used by most US media outlets, which will impact how news is reported.

AP reporters were prohibited by the White House from covering an executive order signing on Feb. 11 because of this. AP is claiming this as unconstitutional because it is a barrier to freedom of speech and press.  

AP has said they are not changing the name to “Gulf of America” so that it is easily recognizable world-wide.

AP formally changed Denali to Mount McKinley since it lies within the US.  

This has led to lots of confusion as to what the body of water will be called and questioning the extent of executive order power.