Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Already Trying to Rename the Gulf of Mexico

Marjorie Taylor Greene is unsurprisingly feeling empowered by Trump’s plan to change the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the “Gulf of America.” Trump floated the idea at a press conference on Tuesday, claiming that the United States already had ownership of the Gulf anyway.

“We’re gonna be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America … what a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate … Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them.”

Greene appeared on popular right-wing commentator Benny Johnson’s show on Tuesday to gleefully reaffirm the president-elect’s goofy idea.

“I was so fired up watching the press conference today … I directed my leg staff to immediately draft legislation … to officially change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Green told Johnson. “And Congress has to do this.… It’s absolutely the right thing to do. We change post office names all the time up here. You better bet we are absolutely going to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Let’s go!”

This is Trump’s latest dream of world domination, as he has mentioned buying Greenland, pitched Canada as the fifty-first state, and raised taking over the Panama Canal.

The president-elect isn’t the first elected official to try to change the Gulf’s name. Former Representative Stephen Holland proposed a bill doing the exact same thing in 2012—but as a joke, a commentary on his Republican colleagues’ prejudice toward Mexico. Trump’s version is an oddly cosmetic nod to U.S. hegemony. The odds of Greene’s bill surviving remain to be seen.

Trump may be able to change the Gulf’s name on U.S. reference maps, but getting other countries (like … Mexico) to recognize it as such is a separate issue. The name Gulf of Mexico is credited to Baptiste Boazio, who was explorer Francis Drake’s illustrator in the 1580s.