Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert was widely derided after she warned Democrats mocking President Donald Trump's "Gulf of America" executive order that Washington, D.C. might be next on the docket for a name change, prompting many to educate her on what she missed in history class.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order changing the "Gulf of Mexico" to the "Gulf of America." The order also reversed an Obama-era decision and changed the name of the Alaskan mountain "Denali" back to "Mount McKinley."
Typically, changing a geographic name involves a lengthy process, taking at least six months as the U.S. Board on Geographic Names consults with states, tribes, mapmakers, and other stakeholders. However, Trump’s order called for the change to take effect within just 30 days, and received significant pushback from news organizations and politicians alike.
The order was certainly on the mind of California Democrat Jared Huffman, who remarked on the "incompetent people in positions to safeguard our nation's sensitive defense and security information" amid revelations that Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was invited into a Signal chat with high-level Trump administration officials, particularly Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussing military strategy surrounding war strikes in Yemen.
At one point, he said:
"[Those in the chat] should be focused on this today. Not trying to break the Endangered Species Act, or kill wolves, or rename bodies of water to appease a petulant president."
A miffed Boebert—who had earlier challenged the 1973 Endangered Species Act—replied with the following once given the opportunity to respond:
“I would caution my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to refrain from making jokes about the Gulf of America because next up may be the District of America that we are working on. So just, you know, keep the jokes at bay, and maybe we'll just stick with the Gulf of America for now."
You can watch what happened in the video below.
But perhaps unsurprisingly, Boebert seemingly made the assumption that "Columbia" was somehow un-American.
The District of Columbia—or D.C., as it's most commonly referred to—is a symbolic reference to Christopher Columbus and the newly "discovered" land he stumbled upon. Notably, in 1791, the district was named Columbia, a feminine form of Columbus, which was a poetic name for the United States commonly used at the time.
And many were quick to point out that she should probably take some history lessons.
Trump proclaimed last month that as his administration "restores American pride in the history of American greatness, it is fitting and appropriate for our great Nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was previously criticized for saying "it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I am not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is."
Her remarks were in part aimed at The Associated Press, which said in January it would use Trump's name change for Denali but not the Gulf of Mexico, per Amanda Barrett, the AP’s vice president of standards and inclusion. The AP has maintained its usage of "Gulf of Mexico," citing its longstanding global recognition and consistency.
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