In late December and early January 2025, President Elect Trump suggested that his actions after January 20, when he would become president, included adding Greenland and Canada to the USA,  bringing the Panama Canal back to the USA, and changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The closest to realization of the four ideas is the last, especially if we call it “The Gulf of the Americas.

For more than two centuries, we have been calling the United States of America by simply calling our nation “America.” Using the initials “USA” is more correct and would acknowledge that there are many nations in this American hemisphere.

If we change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of the Americas, we are affirming that the shores of the gulf include  USAmerica, Central America, the northernmost countries of South America and Caribbean America.*

Naming this area the Gulf of the Americas would be a major step in understanding our neighbors and sharing a geographical understanding of our interrelatedness.

*Caribbean America includes Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and some others.

Thanks go to Wikipedia for some of the data used in this op-ed.