Donald Trump may have drawn inspiration for his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico from a social media post by the brother of a prominent right-wing firebrand.
The Washington Post took a deep dive into the president's executive order renaming the body of water the Gulf of America, which he announced in his inaugural address after kicking around the idea with aides and advisers weeks before returning to the White House.
"Like many of Trump’s ideas, it is difficult to pinpoint where exactly he got the inspiration," the Post reported. "Television host Stephen Colbert had made it a bit of political satire nearly 15 years earlier. A Democratic lawmaker in Mississippi had filed legislation to rename the coast off his state in 2012, also as a joke. Conservative voices for months had been promoting it as a way to showcase American pride and dominance."
"But it was Trump, weeks before taking office, who ultimately decided to add the renaming to his Day 1 agenda," the newspaper added, "elevating a liberal joke turned conservative meme into an Oval Office action that has come to symbolize the tenor of his new presidency."
Colbert set up “The Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund" in 2010, shortly after the BP oil spill off the Gulf Coast, to raise money for relief efforts using his satirical persona on his Comedy Central program, and a Democratic state representative for Mississippi filed legislation in 2012 to rename the gulf to draw attention to what he said was Republicans’ fear of Hispanics.
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“Let’s just get rid of the Mexico thing and have the Gulf of America, and we’ll be very unique in this country, and we’ll be on an island unto ourselves,” said Mississippi state Rep. Steve Holland at the time. "Everyone else can have the Gulf of Mexico, but we’ll have the Gulf of America.”
More recently, conservative activist Kevin Posobiec was inspired to make a social media post celebrating "the Gulf of America" after renting a jet ski in April and riding the waves near Tampa Bay.
“I was like, ‘Man, this is like such an America thing to do,’” he told the Post. “It just came to me. I said, it’s like you see Hulk Hogan and think, ‘Man, that’s America.’ Just having fun in the sun, a Florida man kind of moment. I was like, ‘Man, I’m in the gulf. What if it was the Gulf of America?’”
He posted a photo from his excursion that evening on his X account, with the caption, “Cruising the Gulf of America. It’s proper name come 2025.”
His brother Jack Posobiec, a prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist, amplified that post to his 3 million followers, and while that message didn't take off at the time, the GOP influencer resurfaced it Dec. 22 as Trump's team was preparing to return to the White House.
“While we’re at it,”Jack Posobiec wrote on social media. “Gulf of Mexico? I think you mean Gulf of America.”
It's not clear whether Trump was made aware of that message, but he does follow Jack Posobiec online, and about two weeks later he held a news conference at Mar-a-Lago where he first floated the idea to rename the Gulf of Mexico, as well as taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,” Trump said at the news conference. “That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name and it’s appropriate.”
Deputy chief of staff revised an executive order they'd already drawn up renaming Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley to include Trump's new suggestion, and Kevin Posobiec is still marveling that his gag might have prompted the presidential action.
“I can’t stop laughing at it that he actually signed an executive order – I couldn’t believe it,” Kevin Posobiec said. “They’re making all kinds of maps and T-shirts. It went bonkers online. They actually got Google and Apple to do it.”