Nick DiCeglie wants to adopt Trump-backed ‘Gulf of America’

Sen. Nick DiCeglie wants Florida to follow President Donald Trump’s lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

DiCeglie filed legislation (SB 608) that would change 92 statutory references in Florida law to refer to the body of water along Florida’s west coast as the Gulf of America.

The legislation would comply with Trump’s Executive Order 14172, called “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.”

Trump ordered the federal government to “take all appropriate actions to rename as the ‘Gulf of America’ the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the State of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico.”

DiCeglie’s bill references the President’s directive, which says the move recognizes the “importance of the body of water to the United States.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis already pushed the new name in an Executive Order (EO 25-13) as last month’s Winter storm approached the state.

The name change became official nationally on Monday and Trump declared Feb. 9 “Gulf of America Day.”

Google Maps this week also updated to reflect the name change for people using its product within the U.S. Users in Mexico will continue to see “Gulf of Mexico” displayed, while those everywhere else will see both names, with “Gulf of America” appearing in parentheses below “Gulf of Mexico.”

Google announced in late January that it would make the change the next time it updated its map, honoring a “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”

Apple has not yet made a change to its maps.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has previously quipped that, if the U.S. renames the Gulf of Mexico, she would begin referring to the U.S. as “Mexican America.” Internationally, other countries are not required to honor the name change, but it would create potential discrepancies that would need to be mediated by international organizations, according to USA Today.

Should DiCeglie’s bill pass, the changes to Florida statute would take effect July 1.

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