The MAGA influencer who first non-satirically floated the idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico can’t believe President Donald Trump has officially made it the Gulf of America. “I can’t stop laughing at it that he actually signed an executive order. I couldn’t believe it,” Kevin Posobiec told The Washington Post. “They’re making all kinds of maps and T-shirts. It went bonkers online. They actually got Google and Apple to do it.” In April 2024, Posobiec was riding a jet ski in the Gulf of Mexico and thinking about how it was “such an America thing to do” when he wondered, “What if it was the Gulf of America?” he told the paper. That night he posted a photo on the social media platform X with the caption, “Cruising the Gulf of America. It’s proper name come 2025.” Technically he wasn’t the first to come up with the bit; Stephen Colbert had satirically referred to the “Gulf of America” after the BP oil spill, saying, “We broke it, we bought it.” But Posobiec’s brother Jack, a far-right conspiracy theorist whom Trump follows, reposted Posobiec’s photo, and then floated the idea again on Dec. 22 after Trump had won. It’s not clear if Trump saw the posts. Two weeks later, however, he suggested the name change during a meeting with his advisers. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order renaming the gulf.
Read it at The Washington Post
