'It has gone horribly': CNN analyst finds Trump policy not 'changing people's minds'
May 09, 2025
House Republicans passed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," but CNN's Harry Enten said the name change first advanced by president Donald Trump isn't breaking through with the public.
If passed by the Senate, the bill would codify the executive order Trump signed on his first day in office, although other countries would not be obligated to go along with the change, and Enten presented polling data that showed Americans don't see the point of the move.
"Let's just put it this way," Enten said. "It has bounced, it's like I'm wearing waterproof clothing, if the water was coming down on me and it was the Gulf of Mexico. It bounces right off of me. It has gone horribly. This bounce is terrible."
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Google searches for the Gulf of Mexico have exceeded searches for the Gulf of America in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, which Enten said indicated that Trump's preferred name wasn't sticking.
"The bottom line is, despite whatever Trump wants to say at this particular point, when it comes to what Americans are actually using, they are sticking with the old name," Enten said. "They are sticking with the Gulf of Mexico. They are not in any state going with the Gulf of America. It is 50-to-none, a blowout in favor of the Gulf of Mexico over the Gulf of America. When you're going into Google to search for whatever that body of water is called underneath, you know, Alabama, Mississippi and by Florida, there are people in every state are typing in this instead of this. That is exactly right, and every single state, more folks are typing in Gulf of Mexico in order to search for that body of water underneath our southern border, compared to the Gulf of America – zero states."
Polling shows that 67 percent of registered voters oppose renaming the Gulf of Mexico, and even 36 percent of Republicans are against the move.
"When it comes to the American people, two-thirds oppose, and that is very rare, because in our politics, you rarely get two- thirds of Americans to agree upon anything," Enten said, "but they do oppose the idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America."
What's more, Enten said, the issue is actually motivating Trump's opponents, with 34 percent of Democrats saying the change makes them very motivated to vote, compared to just 18 percent of Republicans.
"The bottom line is Donald Trump has been trying over the last three months to sell this idea that we're going to make the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, but there is no indication that it's actually seeping in to the American consciousness," Enten said. "You see it here. It motivates Democrats more than Republicans. You see it here. 67 percent of Americans oppose the idea, and you see it in the Google searches as well."
"You see that people, simply put, are not going along with Donald Trump, and every single gosh-darn state, more folks are googling Gulf of Mexico than Gulf of America," he added. "There is no sign that this is working out and Trump is changing people's minds."
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