President Donald Trump made a weird pivot in a live Fox News interview on Sunday to discuss renaming the Gulf of Mexico to something more flattering than the “Gulf of America”: the “Gulf of Trump.”
“I decided not to do it. I think maybe it was — I think that one maybe wouldn’t have worked out, I’m not so sure, you’ll have to tell me,” said Trump, who previously claimed to be “joking” about such a rebrand, in a phone interview with host Maria Bartiromo.
Bartiromo, in a conversation that seemingly left her stunned by Trump on at least one occasion, asked the president to spill on a recent Truth Social claim regarding a “massive” amount of empty oil tankers going to the gulf to load up on what he called “the best and ‘sweetest’ oil (and gas!) anywhere in the World.”
He used the question to gush about one of the “little things” he did since his return to office: his attempt to change the gulf’s over 400-year-old, heavily-supported name to the “Gulf of America.”
While some map platforms, particularly Google, and outlets took on Trump’s beloved name for the gulf last year, most stuck with the old.
On Sunday, he suggested that the longstanding name didn’t make sense, claiming that the U.S. has “93%” of the gulf’s “frontage.” (Note: Data from Sovereign Limits, highlighted by The New York Times last year, shows the States lay claim to just 46% of the gulf — 3% less than Mexico.)
As Trump continued to dribble on with his “Gulf of America” talk, Bartiromo tried to interject.
But the president had other plans to riff about naming the gulf after himself.
“It’s going to be called the ‘Gulf of Trump,’ and then I said, ‘You know, that’s not going to play too well,’” said the president as Bartiromo stumbled to pick the interview back up.
He added, “You know I’m kidding. You know I’m kidding.”
Bartiromo jumped in, “You’re being facetious, I know that Mr. President.”
