Trump Declares He’s Renaming Gulf Of Mexico To ‘Gulf Of America’

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” because “it’s ours.”

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory,” Trump said of the ocean basin that borders five U.S. states to the north and Mexico to the south.

It’s carried some version of the Gulf of Mexico name, given to it by Spanish colonizers, since the 1540s.

“The Gulf of America ― what a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate,” Trump said at a news conference, also asserting: “We do most of the work there. It’s ours.”

One of the United States’ biggest impacts on the Gulf was the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, when a BP-operated prospect caused the biggest marine oil spill in petroleum industry history. Despite the event constituting one of the largest environmental disasters in world history, Trump weakened regulations to prevent future spills during his first term in the White House.

Trump’s name change would have no practical effect on the Gulf’s maritime boundaries between the U.S. and Mexico, and in practice, no country can own international waters. And if other renaming efforts offer any indication, the cost of identifying, modifying and removing assets referring to the Gulf of Mexico could carry a price tag in the multimillions.

Not long after Trump’s remarks Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced she would file legislation to make Trump’s proposed name change. Beyond that, it’s unclear how a potential renaming process would play out.

Trump is not the first one to pitch the new name, but he may be the first one to do so seriously. In 2012, former Mississippi state Rep. Stephen Holland, a Democrat, introduced legislation proposing the same name change. He later said he introduced the bill as a bit of satire to criticize his Republican colleagues’ anti-Mexican sentiments.

Trump also vowed last month to rename Denali, Alaskan natives’ name for the tallest mountain in North America, to Mount McKinley. The mountain was called Mount McKinley until 2015, when then-President Barack Obama sided with native Alaskans’ objection to the name honoring former President William McKinley.

“They took his name off Mount McKinley,” Trump said in a speech. “He was a great president,” he continued, adding that his administration will “bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it.”

McKinley never visited the mountain and had no significant historical connection to either Denali or Alaska, Obama noted when he signed off on the change.

Trump has also said he’ll reverse Fort Liberty’s 2021 name change from Fort Bragg, which was originally named after confederate commander Braxton Bragg.

“I think I just learned the secret to winning absolutely and by massive margins. I’m going to promise to you … that we’re going to change the name back to Fort Bragg,” he said in October.

Trump’s proposed name change for the Gulf comes a day after he suggested the United States should acquire Canada, claiming “Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State.”