Rep. Lauren Boebert has hinted that the Trump administration is working behind the scenes on a plan to rename Washington, D.C., the “District of America.”
“I would caution my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to refrain from making fun of the ‘Gulf of America’ because next up, you know it may end up being the ‘District of America’ that we’re working on,” Boebert told lawmakers during a Water, Fisheries and Wildlife Subcommittee hearing Tuesday in response to jibes from opposition members.
“So just, you know, keep the jokes at bay, and maybe we'll just stick with the Gulf of America for now.”
President Donald Trump took bold action on his first day in office after he signed an executive bill that ordered the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
Earlier on in the hearing, Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, brought up the contentious issue of renaming the water basin. He began by stating: “Now, back to the Gulf of America. Stephen Colbert proposed this as a joke in 2010, and it’s important to remember what was going on at the time – what led to the joke.”
Huffman went on to explain that the late-night show host first made the “Gulf of America” suggestion in relation to the catastrophic BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
The roughly 4.9-million-barrel spill caused widespread environmental devastation in the Gulf region, claimed 11 lives, and devasted the coastal economy.
“Colbert used the name change as a gimmick to raise awareness of the disaster. It dragged on for five months – something our Republican friends seem to have forgotten about as they advance to a dirty drilling agenda,” Huffman continued.
“My entire career has been centered around natural resources,” Huffman told reporters in December 2024 upon being re-elected.
Boebert, a MAGA loyalist who has made a determined effort to advance President Trump’s agenda – including his “Drill Baby Drill” pledge and the suggestion to place Trump’s face on a $100 bill.
According to her manifesto on energy, she supports the development of “all domestic energy sources, including hydropower, nuclear, oil, natural gas, geothermal, and renewables.” While she claims to want “clean air and clean water,” she recognizes the need for “recreation opportunities and good-paying jobs.”
In 2022, Boebert brazenly entered a State of the Union address draped in a shawl emblazoned with Trump’s “Drill Baby Drill” pledge.
Huffman was vocally critical during the meeting of the “chaotic government takeover” under Trump and Musk and did not hesitate to call out the renaming of the Gulf.
Boebert chided opposing lawmakers, telling them to “keep the jokes at bay, and maybe we’ll just stick with the ‘Gulf of America for now.”
The hearing was held to discuss several contentious environmental issues, including the 1973 Endangered Species Act.
“It is weirdly appropriate that they are taking what started out as a joke and actually moving it forward as part of their ‘Drill Baby Drill’ agenda and unfortunately that means the joke is on us”, Huffman rebuked.
He also slated DOGE’s recent flurry of federal cuts on environmental staff, claiming that Fish and Wildlife “had lost almost 50 percent of their team,” including biologists and scientists, because of Musk’s pillaging.
According to the National Wildlife Refuge System, roughly 370 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees were axed in mid-February in the wake of DOGE federal cuts.
“These firings, which disproportionately target biologists and natural resource professionals, are a direct attack on science-based conservation and the future of America’s wildlife,” the organization wrote at the time.
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