Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum used sarcasm on Wednesday to counter her American counterpart’s absurd vow to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Sheinbaum, whom Mexican voters elected to be their first woman president in June, proposed renaming North America to “América Mexicana.”
“It sounds pretty, no?” she said at a news conference while standing in front of a map of the world in 1607. “Isn’t it true?”
Sheinbaum was referring to a founding document from 1814 that referred to the continent as such, The Associated Press reported. Her response came after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump claimed that the U.S. was “doing most of the work” in the Gulf of Mexico, adding that “it’s ours” and that he will soon rename it to the “Gulf of America.” (As my colleague Steve Benen has explained, Trump could theoretically rename the area, but other countries may not necessarily follow suit.)
Trump has made clear his ambition for territorial expansion in recent weeks. He has revived his interest in the U.S. owning Greenland, a prospect that is not impossible and has alarmed and bewildered the local population, as The New York Times reported. He has repeatedly said that Canada should be the 51st state of the U.S., angering Canadian leaders. Trump has also said the U.S. should reclaim the Panama Canal, a suggestion the Panamanian government has forcefully dismissed.
As is often the case with Trump, it’s unclear whether his remarks are to be taken at face value or if he is simply trying to stir the pot and humiliate foreign leaders. On Tuesday, he called Mexico “a really dangerous place” and claimed the country is run by drug cartels. “In Mexico, the people rule,” Sheinbaum responded in her news conference Wednesday. “And we are going to collaborate and understand each other with the government of President Trump, I am sure of it, defending our sovereignty as a free, independent and sovereign country.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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