President Donald Trump will rename the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali as part of his extensive first-day initiative.
The Gulf of Mexico will be renamed the Gulf of America and Alaska’s Mount Denali will go back to its original name — Mount McKinley, Mr. Trump said in his inaugural address Monday.
“We will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs,” Mr. Trump said. “President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman.”
The renaming is to honor “American greatness” the outlet reported.
Mr. Trump floated the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico while also talking about making Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada part of the U.S.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,” Mr. Trump said earlier this month. “That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate.”
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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back on the notion, instead asking why not rename North America as “America Mexicana [or] Mexican America.”
Mount Denali, the highest mountain in North America, was renamed by former President Obama in 2015 to honor the local Athabascan name for the mountain.
“McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in December. “They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people. Now, he was a great president, very good president. At a minimum, he was a very good businessman. He was a businessman, then a governor, very successful businessman.”
These are just two executive orders out of a slew of first-day actions that Mr. Trump is taking. The actions range from a crackdown on illegal immigration to reversing diversity, equity and inclusion policies to policies for expanding energy production.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.