The White House says it's a 'fact' that the Gulf of Mexico has been renamed. Is that right?

News

The White House says it's a 'fact' that the Gulf of Mexico has been renamed. Is that right?

2025-02-13 21:58 Last Updated At：22:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — For more than four centuries, the body of water stretching from Florida through Texas and into Mexico has been known as the Gulf of Mexico. But in a matter of weeks, President Donald Trump and White House officials have sought to rewrite the map by calling it the Gulf of America — and insisting others do the same.

“It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Feb. 12. “It's very important to this administration that we get that right, not just for people here at home, but also for the rest of the world.”

But Trump's effort to rewrite the map of the world is far more complicated than such comments suggest. Here's what goes into a name.

Before his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump announced plans to change the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the “Gulf of America” — and signed an executive order to do so as soon as he was in office.

He can change the name for official U.S. purposes, but he can’t dictate what the rest of the world calls it.

The International Hydrographic Organization — of which both the United States and Mexico are members — works to ensure all the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. There are instances where countries refer to the same body of water or landmark by different names in their own documentation.

It can be easier when a landmark or body of water is within a country’s boundaries. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama approved an order from the Department of Interior to rename Mount McKinley — the highest peak in North America — to Denali, a move that Trump has also reversed.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has brushed off Trump's move, saying the president can use whatever name he prefers for the U.S. portion of the water.

“For us, it is still the Gulf of Mexico, and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico," she said shortly after Trump signed the executive order.

Google Maps began using “Gulf of America” for users in the U.S., saying it had a “longstanding practice” of following the U.S. government’s lead on such matters. Users in Mexico will see Gulf of Mexico, and maps will display both names for those logging in from other countries. The other leading online map provider, Apple Maps, has changed to “Gulf of America” on some browsers.

The AP said last month that it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico while noting Trump’s decision to rename it as well. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP says it must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.

AP style is not only used by the agency. The AP Stylebook is relied on by thousands of journalists and other writers globally. The White House has blocked AP reporters from covering several events after demanding the news agency alter its style.

Since his first run for the White House in 2016, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Mexico over a number of issues, including border security and the imposition of tariffs on imported goods. He vowed then to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The U.S. ultimately constructed or refurbished about 450 miles of wall during his first term.

The body of water has been depicted with that name for more than four centuries, an original determination believed to have been taken from the Native American city of “Mexico.”

Yes. In 2012, a member of the Mississippi Legislature proposed a bill to rename portions of the gulf that touch that state's beaches “Gulf of America,” a move the bill author later referred to as a “joke.” That bill, which was referred to a committee, did not pass.

Two years earlier, comedian Stephen Colbert had joked on his show that, following the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it should be renamed “Gulf of America” because "we broke it, we bought it.

There's a long-running dispute over the name of the Sea of Japan among Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, with South Korea arguing that the current name wasn't commonly used until Korea was under Japanese rule. At an International Hydrographic Organization meeting in 2020, member states agreed on a plan to replace names with numerical identifiers and develop a new digital standard for modern geographic information systems.

The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company's decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps.

There have been other conversations about bodies of water, including from Trump’s 2016 opponent. According to materials revealed by WikiLeaks in a hack of her campaign chairman’s personal account, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2013 told an audience that, by China’s logic that it claimed nearly the entirety of the South China Sea, then the U.S. after World War II could have labeled the Pacific Ocean the “American Sea.”

Americans and Mexicans also diverge on what to call another the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

This story has been corrected to show that Google Maps users in Mexico will see the body of water as Gulf of Mexico, not Gulf of America.

Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

Catastrophic floods kill over 360 in Nepal and Tibet, with more than 1,400 missing

DEVIGHAT, Nepal (AP) — Rescue teams and military helicopters searched Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-China border, where a deadly torrent of water and mud several stories high swept through communities a day earlier following a glacier collapse.

Videos of the disaster showed people running before the floodwaters swallowed them up and washed out buildings and bridges. More than 360 people were killed, police said, and more than 1,400 were missing, including scores of foreigners and pilgrims. Hundreds of others have been displaced across the Himalayan region.

The steep slopes and lush valleys below the Himalayan mountain range — home to many of the world’s highest peaks and remaining glaciers — are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Melting glaciers have become more common because of human-caused climate change.

Images showed what appeared to be the second floors of buildings in Nepal’s hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud after the torrent rushed by. Riverbanks and village streets were covered in mud. Debris hung from tree branches and wires. Vehicles were buried, and some stunned survivors were caked in mud.

Before-and-after images aired by state broadcaster China Central Television showed a multistory building and more than a dozen vehicles covered in mud. A two-lane road running along a river in a valley in Tibet's Shigatse prefecture was completely buried. Aerial footage also showed that a lake had formed and expanded on the China-Nepal border.

Nirajan Paudyal, a journalist based in Nepal's capital of Kathmandu, worried for his parents and other relatives in the district's village of Soley.

“I fear there won’t be any update,” Paudyal said.

The disaster has left at least 910 people missing in Nepal. Authorities in Tibet, an autonomous region of China, reported at least three dead and 558 missing.

Nepalese officials said that dozens of bridges were destroyed and nearly 40 kilometers (25 miles) of roads were damaged, complicating search efforts.

The Nepalese army has rescued more than 100 people by helicopter, army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet said. Army teams also evacuated people trapped inside facilities linked to the Trishuli hydropower project, he added.

Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for medical care.

Rescuers found bodies in Chitwan district hundreds of kilometers (miles) downstream from the hardest-hit areas.

Bishal Kumar Bhandari, chairman of the Nepal Red Cross Society, said the agency has shifted its focus from rescue to large-scale relief operations in the flood-hit districts. He said that around 1,200 people were displaced from at least three villages.

In Tibet, a gushing mudslide that struck Wednesday near the land border crossing of Gyirong Port engulfed a multistory port building and left mud in the surrounding areas that was more than 1½ meters (5 feet) deep on average, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. Roads leading to the crossing were all damaged, while secondary collapses or landslides might occur as rain continued in the area, it added.

China's premier, Li Qiang, arrived Thursday in Gyirong to direct rescue efforts, alongside 500 military and paramilitary personnel. Military helicopter circled overhead, searching for survivors, assessing the disaster and mapping out possible rescue and evacuation routes.

Chinese authorities also warned that the newly formed lake at the confluence of the Tsogyal and the Purupqiangzangbu rivers is overflowing and may burst.

The United Nations' humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, announced Thursday on X that he ordered the release of $2 million from the U.N.'s Central Emergency Response Fund to help with medical care, shelter and water. He called the floods “horrifying.”

“We pledge to support national efforts to deliver emergency aid and support,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters.

Many people in the disaster zone waited to hear whether their loved ones were alive.

Shova Shrestha, 33, has spent more than a day seeking word of her husband, Rajan Shrestha. She said his phone rang when she first called after the floods, but it later became unreachable. Since then, she has watched every helicopter that landed in Bidur, the capital of Nuwakot district, hoping he might be among the survivors.

“I keep looking at each helicopter, hoping he will step out of it,” Shova said.

Among the missing are 517 foreigners, according to Nepal’s tourism board.

They include 178 people from India, more than 60 from the U.S. and people from 30 other countries, including Ukraine, the U.K., South Africa and Japan, the board said.

Many of the missing may have been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others.

Seventy-seven people from one pilgrimage group were caught in the floods at the immigration office at the border, according to a post on X from Indian spiritual guru Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

A visibly emotional Sadhguru said in a video that the group included 22 Americans and others from various countries. He said that there was no official information on their whereabouts.

The U.S. State Department said 90 Americans are unaccounted for in China and Nepal after the flood. The department said it was unaware of any U.S. deaths and that three Americans had been rescued.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday that 288 of the country's people, including some workers on a power project, were missing.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said that nearly 100 Chinese citizens were missing in Nepal. According to preliminary information, 260 of those missing in Tibet were foreigners, he said.

The U.S. Geological Survey first reported a magnitude 4.4 earthquake early Wednesday, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Kathmandu, near the border.

The agency later updated its analysis to say the seismic event was instead a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse that sent debris flowing downstream.

Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development said an avalanche from a glacier likely caused Wednesday’s flash flood.

In an emailed statement, they said water levels at one point on the Trishuli River rose by as much as 9 meters (27 feet) in half an hour.

The increasingly unstable Himalayan ice system threatens communities, infrastructure and water supplies across one of the world’s most densely populated regions.

The region saw similar flash floods in August 2025, when a glacial lake in Tibet overflowed because of high temperatures. Nine people were killed, and critical infrastructure, including a bridge connecting Nepal and China, was damaged.

Kafle reported from Kathmandu, Nepal. Associated Press journalists Upendra Mansingh in Nuwakot District, Nepal; Kanis Leung in Hong Kong; Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India; Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia; Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Ali Swenson and Edith Ledere in New York; Matthew Lee in Washington; and Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.

The White House says it's a 'fact' that the Gulf of Mexico has been renamed. Is that right?

News

The White House says it's a 'fact' that the Gulf of Mexico has been renamed. Is that right?

Next Article

Catastrophic floods kill over 360 in Nepal and Tibet, with more than 1,400 missing

Tate brothers' extradition fight is back in Miami court as brothers seek a release on bond

Prosecutors in Clancy case say America’s medical system is ‘not on trial here’

Lindsay Clancy's attorney says she was in a deep psychosis when she killed her 3 children

Ratko Mladic, ex-Bosnian Serb warlord who oversaw atrocities, dies in prison at 84

Tech stocks lead Wall Street after Nvidia, Salesforce and others say AI is creating big growth

New Zealand presses World Rugby on Springboks scrum tactics ahead of 2nd test

Tropical Storm Dolly forms in the Atlantic and could bring heavy rain to portions of the Caribbean