After President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America (a body of water that was named in 1607, 169 years before the United States was formed), Chevron Corp.’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth complied with the president’s order.
‘GULF OF AMERICA’: President-elect Trump announces plans to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America after he takes office. pic.twitter.com/JlqJ6D2uRF
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 7, 2025
In a Friday earnings statement and on its website, the $274 billion company Chevron made the switch — referring to the location of its extensive offshore operations on the body of water as the Gulf of America.
Note: Trump’s executive order does not appear to have the legal authority to force companies to change their communications around activities in the Gulf. Rather, it directs the Secretary of the Interior (newly sworn-in Doug Burgum) to make the name change for federal communications and data systems within 30 days (by February 20).
Bloomberg Law reported that Wirth said in an interview regarding Chevron using the moniker Gulf of America: “That’s the official position of the U.S. government,” and “If Google Maps is using it — then Chevron is using it.”
Can Trump really change the Gulf of Mexico’s name? @jimwyss explains https://t.co/QaATeKhS3h pic.twitter.com/JeMMjgW4BI
— Bloomberg (@business) January 30, 2025
Google has said it will change the name for users in the U.S. when it is changed in federal data systems, though not in Latin American countries, as the company claims it has a “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
As a result of another Trump executive order, Google Maps will also use the name Mount McKinley for what is currently called Mount Denali, showing “McKinley” to U.S. users.
[Notably, Google’s binary solution — giving the body of water different names depending on a user’s location — could result in Trump seeing (on any trip south of the U.S. border) the Gulf’s name revert to the name Gulf of Mexico, until he crosses back into the U.S.]
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has asked Google not to change the name of the Gulf, arguing that the U.S. has no legal right to change it.
Mexico cites the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea holding that a country’s sovereign territory, and therefore its naming authority, extends no further than “12 nautical miles out from the coastline.”
Chevron has a lot more than semantics on the line when it comes to wanting support from the new Trump administration: the energy giant is the only US oil company allowed to operate in Venezuela and it wants to keep it that way.
Wirth implied Chevron’s continued presence in the country is an important U.S. national security consideration: “Other companies have left Venezuela. They’ve been replaced by and large with companies from two countries: Russia and China.”