Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum excoriated President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday after he suggested that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America.
“Obviously, the Gulf of Mexico is a name recognized by the United Nations,” Sheinbaum, speaking in Spanish, said during her daily press conference, according to Politico.
She then pointed to a historic map of North America, on which parts of what is now the U.S. the map said, “America Mexicana.”
“Why don’t we call it Mexican America?” she said with a heavy tinge of sarcasm. “It sounds nice, no?”
During his own press conference Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said, “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.”
He added: “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate…And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”
He went on to claim that Mexico “can stop them and we’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada because Canada, they come through Canada, too.”
“Because I know I will be asked, I think that yesterday, President Trump was misinformed, with all due respect to President Trump. Because I believe they informed him that in Mexico, Felipe Calderón was still governing, and García Luna,” Sheinbaum said in reference to the former president of Mexico and his Secretary of Public Security, who both left their posts in 2012.
Last year, Luna was sentenced to more than 38 years in U.S. prison after he was found to have taken bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.
“But no. In Mexico, the people govern,” she said.
This comes as Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has vowed to introduce legislation to change the name of the gulf.
Greene took to Trump’s platform Truth Social to share a clip of the president-elect pitching the name change.
“President @realDonaldTrump’s second term is off to a GREAT start. I’ll be introducing legislation ASAP to officially change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to its rightful name, the Gulf of America!” she wrote.
A number of congressional Republicans have already begun using the new name.
Texas Republican Rep. Brandon Gill appeared on CNN Wednesday, saying that “President Trump is bringing us into a golden age of America. This is the new Manifest Destiny. Reacquiring the Panama Canal, acquiring Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This is the light of America expanding.”
Political scientist and head of the Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer commented on Sheinbaum’s mockery of Trump, writing: “file under: two can play that game.”
“Watching Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum dog walk Trump has been and will continue to be so much fun,” Arturo Dominguez added.
“I am once again asking for a Canadian leader to show even half the backbone of Claudia Sheinbaum in responding to Trump,” Chris Horkins wrote.
