President Donald Trump’s directive to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America sparked chaos within the agency that was tasked with explaining it, according to a new report.
Trump announced the name change on January 7, just weeks before his inauguration. This triggered a whirlwind of questions from reporters directed at the U.S. Geological Survey, the agency responsible for the country’s geographic names, the media outlet NOTUS reports.
Agency staff were just as curious as reporters about the potential renaming, according to NOTUS. But Michael Tischler, director of the agency’s National Geospatial Program, told staff that the public affairs office instructed them not to respond to journalists’ questions.
“I don’t mean ‘...has no comment at this time…,’ I mean do not respond at all,” Tischler wrote in a January 7 message reviewed by NOTUS.
Agency staff, including Tischler, even discussed the policy with the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. Their discussion came after a reporter asked the United Nations group how the rest of the world might respond to the name change.
The United Nations group discussed a potential statement in response, but it appears it was never released, according to NOTUS. Tischler informed the group that his agency was not responding to any media requests.
When Trump made the change official, even Tischler himself was wondering how the name change would work in practice.
In an email to the State Department, Tischler wrote: “Does this definition constitute the entire Gulf? Or are we going to splitting [sic] the feature into two — Gulf of Mexico in the southern portion and Gulf of America in the northern portion?”
Society of Professional Journalists Executive Director Caroline Hendrie told NOTUS that the agency was “stonewalling” journalists amid the chaos.
“It’s unacceptable for public officials, particularly those in communications roles funded by taxpayers, to adopt a deliberate strategy of ignoring journalists’ requests,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department, which oversees the Geological Survey, told NOTUS that agency staff acted appropriately.
The agency “followed standard protocol by referring all related media inquiries to [the Department of the Interior], as is appropriate when the department is leading a high-level initiative,” the spokesperson said. “The notion that USGS staff deliberately withheld information or acted inappropriately is categorically false.”
The Independent contacted the U.S. Geological Survey and the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names for comment. An official from the Department of Interior responded and called the NOTUS report “flawed and misleading.”
“USGS routinely shares public feedback with Department leadership, but it is neither practical nor standard to respond to every individual submission. Attempts to cast that reality as suspicious or evasive are deeply irresponsible and misleading,” department spokeswoman Alyse Sharpe stated.
While Trump instituted the name change via executive order, some federal lawmakers are seeking to enshrine his directive in law.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene sponsored a bill that would instruct federal agencies to update all documents and maps to reflect the new name within six months.
That bill passed the House in May along party lines. Every Republican except for one — Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska — voted in favor. The bill is now in the Senate, but it’s unlikely to pass due to Democratic opposition.
Trump has also targeted other U.S. landmarks.
The president ordered that Alaska’s Denali, the tallest peak in North America, be renamed back to Mount McKinley in January. The name honors former President William McKinley, who served from 1897 until 1901, when he was assassinated. McKinley was born in Ohio and never set foot in Alaska, the Associated Press reports.
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