Mapmakers are confused over landscape name changes ordered by Trump

President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive orders to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Mount Denali to Mount McKinley have confused mapmakers, news organizations and teachers.

In 2015, President Barack Obama renamed Mount McKinley (named for President William McKinley) to Mount Denali. The current president changed the name of the mountain back to the one it was given in 1917. The president can rename any landscape within the country.

The change is now officially recognized by the government and several news agencies, including the Associated Press. However, one of the leading map makers, National Geographic, has yet to decide whether to incorporate the change.

The Gulf of _____?
The name change is more complicated with the Gulf of Mexico since it is a water body shared by the US, Mexico and Cuba, and other countries don’t have to accept the new name.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum strongly opposed the change and joked about renaming North America as Mexican America.

However, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and several other politicians are already calling it the Gulf of America. The name change was made official by the Interior Department last week.

Critics point out that the politics of naming landscapes is nothing new. China and the US call a body of water the South China Sea, but countries in the area use other names. What Americans call the Rio Grande is called Rio Bravo by Mexicans.

Several speculate that it seems unlikely that the Gulf’s identity will change anytime soon, despite Trump’s decree.