A globe is a handy thing. When I learned one of my favorite bits of local trivia — to pray facing Mecca, Chicago Muslims must turn northeast — I rushed to my globe for confirmation. On a map, that looks wrong. But a minute with a string and my 16-inch Replogle Library Globe and you see it is true — northeast, through Montreal. Because the world is spherical.
While my globe is a lovely object — brass fittings, three carved lion’s paw feet — it does have drawbacks. This one is old and out of date. There is a French West Africa and a Belgian Congo, remnants of a colonial past our new administration seems hot to revive.
One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was to declare the Gulf of Mexico is now the “Gulf of America.” Marking territory we do not actually own, like my little dog on a walk, laying claim to certain trees. A sign, not of strength, but weakness. I shook my head, smiling at the self-own.
Then again, I don’t have to leap to accommodate him. You and I and the rest of the world can continue to call it the “Gulf of Mexico” as it has been known for the past 400 years. But like Trump’s attempt to cut federal funding to key programs, the renaming of the gulf will affect people who were never considered.
For instance: One of the top manufacturers of globes in the world is Replogle, a venerable Chicago company for the past 95 years (overlooking an awkward period when it shut down in 2010, popping up in Indiana, until it took a good look around, realized where it was, and scurried back). Keeping up with the shifting sands of politics is a constant challenge for Replogle, and I wondered just how quickly they are following Trump’s directive.
“It’s a tough business climate for both our businesses, newspapers and globes,” Replogle CEO Joseph Wright began. I didn’t argue.
Replogle makes hundreds of models of globes in numerous languages, and reflecting reality as the locals see it is already in their skill set. Thus, Japanese globes show them owning the Kuril Islands, which the Soviets seized in 1945. Globes sold in India show them possessing all of Kashmir, which Pakistan takes issue with.
So this isn’t their first rodeo. The day East and West Germany reunited, Replogle globes showing a unified Germany were rolling off the line. Here, a little delay seems in order. Trump’s fragile whims have a way of sometimes shattering when they hit hard reality. His funding freeze to thousands of federal programs, remember, was rescinded two days later.
“In the United States, most turn to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names under the Department of the Interior,” Wright said. “However, that is just a small starting point. We also look at which countries are recognized by the U.S. for inclusion. Also the U.N. Also NATO. Most large international waters are not under the control of any naming authority or treaty. Each country decides for themselves.”
Other companies selling products that cannot be readily updated are also playing for time, such as Chicago’s purveyor of physical maps and atlases.
“Rand McNally will await final legal and public review through the Secretary of the Interior’s office, as required in President Trump’s Executive Order, before making any adjustments to our Atlases and maps regarding the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” the company said in a statement.
Market demand is key. When Egypt insisted its border with Sudan be placed where they fancy it should be, rather than where it actually is, Replogle consulted the State Department, considered its minuscule Egyptian market, then shrugged and ignored the request. America’s former allies whom Trump daily neglects and insults, when he isn’t harming them with insane, self-destructive tariffs, are a larger market. They cannot be expected to start stocking up on “Gulf of America” globes.
Anyone dealing with Trump has to consider the idea of retribution. While globes are not considered the media, they are printed matter, and the freedom of the press — which Trump has not yet ruled out of existence — still applies.
“Each publisher in the U.S. can decide what they want to do and it could even be fictional, as long as they don’t mislead consumers as to content and accuracy,” Wright said.
Place names on maps offer a tempting symbolic victory — in some parts of the world, all of Israel is labeled “Palestine,” and Putin’s maps no doubt show Ukraine as part of Russia. Actual victories, as Putin discovered, aren’t achieved easily through relabeling. Anyone who would lead a great nation should know that.