With President Trump in office recently, the Gulf of Mexico underwent a name change to the Gulf of America.  Although this doesn’t affect daily life much, it still impacts the social aspect of American students nationwide.  Freshman Eli Christensen spoke out about how the name change was one of the priorities of the 47th president.

“The president should have focused on other, more important matters before changing the gulf’s name,” Christensen said.  “People won’t accept this change because it has pretty much always been the Gulf of Mexico, not of America.”

International bodies that deal with sea names have not acknowledged the name change.  Students also criticized the speediness and regulations of the name swap itself.

“The name change wasn’t very effective in the way that it was brought upon,” Freshman Grayson Bratton said.  “It could have been done better and more widespread.”

Mexico has strongly objected to the renaming, with concerns about sovereignty and historical context.  The Mexican president has even threatened legal action against companies like Google.

“Mexico doesn’t have grounds to sue Google because it’s pretty much exclusive to the USA, and Google is a multitrillion-dollar company,” Gilliland said.  “Teachers probably shouldn’t cover this topic, though, because it doesn’t align with our course at the moment.”

There has been a lot of controversy with media outlets, with the White House banning some press agencies due to them not using the new name.  The name change also affects places that are branded around the gulf and causes many places to be outdated.

“It’s a big change for the surrounding areas, especially places with the Gulf of Mexico already engrained into them,” Christensen said.  “But if Google Maps updated the name, maps in school should update as well.”