Thursday, January 9, 2025

Sheinbaum responds to Trump: ‘Why don’t we call the US Mexican America?’

A day after Donald Trump announced his intention to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, President Claudia Sheinbaum proposed calling the United States — or at least the country’s southwest — “Mexican America.”

“Why don’t we call [the United States] Mexican America, it sounds nice, right?” Sheinbaum said at her Wednesday morning press conference.

“It does, doesn’t it?” the president added with a smile.

She noted that the Constitution of Apatzingán, which was created during the Mexican War of Independence, referred to territory now known as the United States as Mexican America.

At the time of the document’s creation in 1814, large parts of what is now the southwestern United States were still under Spanish control. Mexico, when it became an independent country in 1821, was much larger than it is today, as its territory included all or part of several modern-day U.S. states.

“The Constitution of Apatzingán was of Mexican America. So we’re going to call it Mexican America,” Sheinbaum said, as she gestured toward an old map showing modern-day United States territory referred to as Mexican America.

“It sounds nice, right?” she said again, riffing on Trump’s declaration that the name “the Gulf of America” has a “beautiful ring to it.”

The name ‘Gulf of Mexico’ is internationally recognized, Sheinbaum says 

“Obviously the name ‘Gulf of Mexico’ is recognized by the United Nations,” Sheinbaum told reporters.

She later said that the Gulf of Mexico has been known as such since at least 1607.

The president appeared to get a kick out of her history presentation during Wednesday's press conference, evening the score on Trump's recent territorial claims.
The president appeared to get a kick out of her history presentation during Wednesday’s press conference, evening the score on Trump’s recent territorial claims. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

“In addition, it’s recognized internationally,” Sheinbaum said.

During a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, Trump said that the Gulf of Mexico is “ours” and asserted that the United States does “most of the work there.”

“… 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. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name, and it’s appropriate, it’s appropriate,” the U.S. president-elect said.

Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard dismissed the possibility that the name of the body of water could be or would be changed, telling reporters on Monday that the Gulf of Mexico will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico for at least the next 30 years.

President asserts Trump is misinformed about the power of Mexican cartels 

At his Tuesday press conference, Trump also said that Mexico is “essentially run by the cartels.”

On Wednesday, Sheinbaum claimed that the former and future U.S. president has been “misinformed” about the situation in Mexico, saying that she believed he has been told that former president Felipe Calderón and his erstwhile security minister Genaro García Luna were still governing the country.

“But no; in Mexico, the people rule,” she said.

García Luna, federal security minister between 2006 and 2012, was sentenced to just over 38 years in prison in the United States last October after he was convicted in February 2023 of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel.

Genaro Garcia Luna and Felipe Calderon
Genaro García Luna, left, when he was Mexico’s security minister during the presidency of Felipe Calderón, right. (Cuartoscuro)

Sheinbaum said in October that Calderón “should apologize” for having had a now-convicted and sentenced criminal as his security minister. The ex-president has denied he had any knowledge of García Luna’s illicit activities.

Trump has indicated that he is open to the possibility of using the United States military to combat Mexican cartels in Mexico, the source of much of the illicit fentanyl and other drugs that are consumed in the U.S.

In 2021, then-commander of the United States Northern Command, Glen D. VanHerck, claimed that criminal organizations controlled “ungoverned areas” that accounted for about one-third of Mexico’s territory.

Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected the assertion.

Will Mexico have a good relationship with the US during Trump’s second term? Sheinbaum believes so 

Despite Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States, and disparaging remarks he has made about Mexico and Mexicans, Sheinbaum has reiterated her belief that Mexico will have a good relationship with the U.S. during the second Trump administration.

“I continue to think there will be good relations with President Trump,” she said Wednesday.

“What do I base [my belief] on? Well, there were good relations with president López Obrador and there has to be a relationship of mutual respect, of collaboration, not of subordination,” Sheinbaum said.

Mexico News Daily 

31 COMMENTS

  1. While Trump is a notch better than Biden (at least able to formulate complete sentences), his rhetoric is full of exaggerations and b.s. Case in example is that Mexico is run by cartels. Why not admit and tackle first the fact that The military industrial complex, big pharma, and media conglomerates control the United States.

    Buy Greenland for national security reasons? My a$$. Rob and pillage natural resources, and access to the Arctic natural resources.

    It seems that “national security” is a permanent justification for steam rolling whatever place has something to steal by the biggest parasite on Earth – the US.

  2. Seems to me that Trump’s approach to invade both Greenland and Panama is just patterned after his role model and hero Vladimir Putin. “What th’ hell, if Vlad can get away with it to annex Ukraine, why can’t I? No matter what the cost and loss of life.”

    And now he wants to weaponize the Executive Branch, with the support of his MAGA Congress and Supreme Court, to enact massive tariffs on Greenland just to get his own way.

    Well, he speaks for the majority of U.S. voters who have put him back in office for four more years. Reminds me of Germany back in the 1930s.

  3. Changing to Gulf of America is spot on since the Gulf is surrounded by North America and Central America and has been since BEFORE La Presidenta’s map

  4. Should the State of New Mexico should be renamed New America? Should every state, city, road, monument, etc. that’s in Spanish be renamed a patriotic American name in English?

  5. As a Canadian who loves both Canada and Mexico and has always tolerated the USA , the ugly American is getting in the way . It used to be a joke about America’s swagger and ignorance of the world , now it’s a deadly serious game they are playing.
    Sheinbaum is telling it like it is . She is the first leader to stand up against Trump and his greedy and selfish billionaires . Panama , Greenland , Canada and the rest of the world need to do the same!

  6. Tell you what Mr Trump, completely wipe out the central western banking system globally that controlled by the FED, investigate the corruption in all levels of government in all three countries, starting with Canada, USA and then Mexico, wipe out all the criminal pedofiles and their rings globally, remove the illegals in all countries, allow gold and silver and crypto to become the people’s money, wipe out the cartels and all other criminal organizations, stop all wars, hunger and homelessness and you can call anywhere what makes sense to the inhabitants by way of secure voting for any such name change. I think it’s called draining the swamp? You’ll have the people behind you.

  7. The whackos have arrived on the MND reply section. Look for misinformation about the Number of US states taken from Mexico in 1848. They include California, part of Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Too many replies were in half sentences and some off-the-wall MAGA thoughts. Given Trump craziness/his dementia thoughts, space on any media is just what he wants, it’s his MOD. His biggest opponents are the majority of the American people, not just those who vote, but those who didn’t vote for various reasons. Trump turns undecided or apathetic people to anti-Trump citizens.

    Viva Presidenta Sheinbaum! She needs to take naughty boy Trump to the woodshed.

  8. Claudia: Absolutely brilliant. It reminds the world of history and how great a country Mexico is.

    I would suggest that in the context of Mexican America we could call the present Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Chicxulub.

    Apart from pointing out earlier history at the K-T boundary when the area was hit by a meteor and cleared the swamp of dinosaurs, the pronuciation points out the Mayan sound of X.

    We could then point out that X.COM should be pronounced Shhhhh.com.

    I would also invite you to help save the UK from its present problems and government.

  9. This is “posturing” before the game begins. Trump is simply sizing up President Sheinbaum, to see who she really is and how strong she will be when challenged.

    Both Presidents want the best for their countries, and both will eventually work together over time. Trump says disagreeable things to get a reaction! That reaction tells him what future deals may have possibilities with and other’s simply not worth fighting over. It ‘s a high stakes poker game all politicians play. The game is long and has many bluffs, high level wagers, and numerous ways to play one’s hand over time when dealing with another skilled card player.

    President Sheinbaum is a very skilled card player in politics and is fully aware of Trumps tactics. Like it or not, he’s working hard to get the best for the U.S. and President Sheinbaum will press back on Trump to get the best for Mexico.

    Enjoy this banter between these two because it shows how spirited each player really is. And besides, ALL politicians talk a great game in public, but behind closed doors, agreements tend to take on a whole different attitude that the average citizen will never see.

    Both know they will have to work together. So when Trump says he might just change the name of Oaxaca to TRUMP LAND…LOL…enjoy the game and have a laugh! Enjoy seeing how Mexico’s very impressive President deals with the angry orange haired gringo….these are two strong fighters that are testing the other before the game begins.

    LOL…Trump Land…or maybe New Sheinbaum City USA next…LOL!!! Let the games BEGIN!!!!

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