Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was widely mocked after she shared a video on X in which she bragged about her "Gulf of America" bill but didn't realize she'd accidentally dropped the MAGA mask by referring to it by its proper name—the Gulf of Mexico—instead.
On his first day in office, President Donald 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.
Despite the fact that the body of water bordering Mexico, the United States, and Cuba has been called the Gulf of Mexico for over 400 years—long before the U.S. existed—Greene voiced her support in January for renaming it the Gulf of America. Shortly after Trump signed his executive order, she introduced and began pushing a bill to make the change official.
She made clear that the bill is still on her list of priorities in a post on March 25—but acknowledged the gulf's actual name when she said that "Mexican cartels currently use the Gulf of Mexico" for trafficking purposes:
"I’m headed to the Natural Resources Committee to present my bill, the Gulf of America Act, to codify President Trump’s executive order. Mexican cartels currently use the Gulf of Mexico to traffic humans, drugs, weapons, and God knows what else while the Mexican government allows them to do it."
"The American people are footing the bill to protect and secure the maritime waterways for commerce to be conducted. 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 call it."
You can see a screenshot of her original tweet below.
@RepMTG/X
She realized her error and edited the tweet to make sure she stayed on script, this time referring to it as just "the Gulf."
But eagle-eyed social media users noticed it anyway and called her out immediately.
The Gulf of America fictions were also the mind of Greene's fellow MAGA colleague Lauren Boebert, who made headlines last week for warning Democrats mocking the "Gulf of America" that Washington, D.C., might be next in line for a name change.
After California Democrat Jared Huffman criticized Republicans who've chosen to "rename bodies of water to appease a petulant president," Boebert said she 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."
However, her remarks prompted others to point out that 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.
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