Mexican President writes a letter to Google to stop the renaming of 'Gulf of Mexico' on Maps

The Mexican president has sent a message to Google after the controversial name change.

President Donald Trump might've made friends with the world's richest people during his first week in office, but he's also made plenty of enemies. His controversial executive orders have targeted everyone from refugees to the transgender community, DEI office staff to the entire country of Mexico. With over 300 executive orders being signed since he stepped back into the White House on January 20, he's wasted no time trying to redefine America in his image.

Among the most controversial is Executive Order 14172, titled "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” where President Trump has vowed to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

The body of water is bordered by the US, Cuba, and Mexico - being known as the Gulf of Mexico since it first appeared on a world map back in 1550.

Although there are some questions about whether Trump has the power to enact this change, Google Maps has come under fire for already honoring it.

Appealing against the POTUS' executive order, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has written to Google and asked it to reconsider the name change.

While the 'Gulf of America' name will only appear to those who access Google Maps in the USA, Sheinbaum has argued that the rename goes against the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The law dictates that any individual country's sovereign territory can only extend to a maximum of 12 nautical miles from its coastline.

Reading from the letter at her morning press conference on January 29, Sheinbaum said: "[The name change] could only correspond to the 12 nautical miles away from the coastlines of the United States of America."

She added: "We ask that when you put Mexican America in the search engine, the map appears that we presented."

It's not just the Gulf of Mexico getting a rebrand, with Google Maps also renaming Mount Denali as Mount McKinley as outlined in Executive Order 14172.

This isn't the first time someone has tried to rename the Gulf of Mexico, and during his tenure as the chair of the United States Board on Geographic Names, John R. Hébert claims one individual sent repeated proposals to rename the waters. We doubt it was President Trump, but you never know.

Mexican government is about to announce the change the of "United States of America" for "Mexican American" What would you do? And what about if Russia announces that Ukraine is not longer Ukarine but New Russia
Would you rename maps after every autocrat come to power?

— Azul Aguiar (@azulaguiar) January 28, 2025

Sheinbaum and Trump have shared jibes over name changes, and she previously presented a counterproposal where she said if the POTUS was going to rename things, then maybe North America should be renamed 'Mexican America' like maps from 1607.

While the Gulf of America might be sticking in America, Sheinbaum has previously mocked Trump, saying: "He says that he will call it the Gulf of America on its continental shelf. For us, it is still the Gulf of Mexico, and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico."

There's no mention of Google having responded to her yet, although it has released a general statement on social media saying: "We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources."

It went on to reiterate: "When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name."