Overview

Gulf Of America refers to President-elect Donald Trump's statement about his intention to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America." Trump justified this change during a news conference held in early January 2025, suggesting the new name reflects a broader vision of American ownership and identity. The controversial remark became a viral topic across social media, including Reddit and X / Twitter, where some users criticized the President's attempt to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico while others celebrated it. The statement also resulted in numerous users making jokes and memes about the potential name change. In early February 2025, Google Maps updated the body of water’s name for U.S. citizens and for other regions it appears as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”

Background

On January 7th, 2025, President-elect Donald Trump announced, during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, "We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring." He stated that the new name would be more representative of the United States. The C-SPAN YouTube^[1] channel posted Trump's full statement (seen below), which gained more than 2.900 views and 120 likes in a few hours,

Developments

February 2025 Google Maps ‘Gulf of America’ Update

On February 11th, 2025, Google Maps changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico, to the Gulf of America, after Trump’s executive order earlier in January 2025. The update for U.S. citizens (seen below, top) now shows the body of water named as “Gulf of America” and for other regions it appears as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).” (seen below, bottom)

Online Reactions

Donald Trump's "Gulf of America" statement quickly received backlash and criticism from some on social media as netizens shared memes and jokes mocking the idea as it garnered international attention online.

For example, on January 7th, 2025, X^[2] user @ProseccoLiquido posted an ironic map of the U.S. with the caption "Gulf of Dumbfuckistan is better," which received roughly 480 likes and 80 reposts in a few hours (seen below).

On the same day, Redditor^[3] sassystew posted an image of Trump accompanied by the caption, "Trump wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America," which garnered over 480 upvotes and 200 comments in a few hours.

Many Mexicans also commented on Trump's controversial statement on TikTok, as user @carlos_eduardo_espina^[4] posted a video (seen below) on January 7th, 2025, captioned, "He wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America." The post (seen below) amassed roughly 124.000 plays and 6,300 likes in a few hours.

Other social media users celebrated the idea of changing the Gulf of Mexico's name. For instance, on January 7th, X^[5] user @BrandieWithABee posted a meme of Trump altering the name to "Gulf of America" on a map and then dancing, receiving over 752,000 views, 9,400 likes and 230 replies in three hours (shown below).

GULF OF AMERICA!!! pic.twitter.com/Yn5K8Jh7p0

— Brandie with a 🐝 (@BrandieWithABee) January 7, 2025

The comment also spawned numerous threads and posts on Reddit on January 7th, 2025, including a post to the subreddit /r/BoomersBeingFools^[6] that received over 2,300 upvotes and 560 comments in three hours and a post on /r/Conservative^[7] that garnered over 560 upvotes and 340 comments in a similar timeframe.

Search Interest

External References