Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has released a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” after Donald Trump floated the idea during his rambling press conference at Mar-a-Lago earlier on Tuesday.
“We’re going to change because we do most of the work there and it’s ours,” Trump said. “It’s appropriate, and Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”
In a statement on X, Greene said she directed her staff to draft the bill as soon as Trump made the announcement.
“The American people are footing the bill to protect and secure the maritime waterways for commerce to be conducted,” she added. “Our U.S. armed forces protect the area from any military threats from foreign countries. It’s our gulf. The rightful name is the Gulf of America and it’s what the entire world should refer to it as.”
Greene’s bill would require federal agencies to make “Gulf of America” the official name they use to refer to the Gulf of Mexico within 180 days of the bill’s passing.
Greene’s bill faces steep odds in Congress given the 60-vote threshold in the Senate and the fact that it would require massive federal funding to enforce the change.
Oddly enough, Trump is not the first person to suggest renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” but he appears to be the first person who is seriously considering it.
Former Democratic Mississippi State Rep. Steve Holland proposed a bill in 2012 that would have renamed the gulf into the “Gulf of America.” He later pulled the bill saying it was meant as a joke to criticize Republicans anti I immigration stance, according to ABC News.
“They are trying to really discriminate against immigrants, which offends me severely,” Holland said at the time. “I just thought if we’re gonna get into it, we might as well all get into it, it’s purely tongue and cheek.”
Stephen Colbert also suggested the same name during his show “The Colbert Report” in 2010.
