Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum turned the tables on US President-elect Donald Trump’s talk about renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
In what appeared to be a deadpan joke, Sheinbaum suggested the United States be known as “Mexican America” during a press briefing on Wednesday.
“It would be pretty, no?” she asked, using a a centuries-old map showing then-Mexico-controlled areas of the current-day US ― and its name “Mexican America” ― to make her point.
The name of the Gulf of Mexico is recognised by the United Nations and has been in place for hundreds of years, she also noted.
Watch the video, that went viral on social media, here:
Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor, was sworn in as Mexico’s first female president in October and has already had to counter some of Trump’s election promises.
After Trump vowed to put 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico when he returns to the White House in less than two weeks, Sheinbaum said Mexico will retaliate in kind.
Aside from trying to rename the gulf, which would be a very tricky task, Trump has also this week continued to fantasize about the United States somehow merging with Canada, and America taking control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.