Renaming Bodies of Water and Land is Not Effective Governance

Nor is it a deterrent to anything. Anything at all.

By: Austin Abbring

September 14, 2026

This is one of those stories I have been desperately trying to avoid for a long time, but we have reached the point where I need to briefly discuss it. Do not fret; I will attempt to keep this short, as it is not overly consequential in the grand scheme of things and is just beyond stupid. Simply put. Donald Trump’s renaming and attempts at renaming landmasses and water masses have finally irritated me enough. Especially as a Geography major and extremely amateur political commentator.

During this second Trump administration, the president has signed three executive orders changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, Lake Ontario to Lake America, and reverting Mount Denali in Alaska to its former name, Mount McKinley. He has also suggested renaming the U.S. state New Mexico to “New America” and has also thrown out the idea of renaming the Strait of Hormuz to the “Trump Strait”. You know, the strait that was once a free, open waterway, which may one day fall under Iran’s ownership and no longer be such due to this disastrous and embarrassing war put on by this administration.

For starters, the United States is the only country that interprets the “Gulf of America” and “Lake America” as such. Not one other member of the international community recognizes these names. No one communicates these new names in any aviation or maritime context, nor are they recognized on any world maps. The next presidential administration can also simply override these executive orders and revert the names. If it is a Democratic administration, this will almost assuredly be the case. It will just be one of hundreds of hurdles, or essentially busywork, that the next Democratic president will have to waste time on.

As I said earlier, and as this shows by being done via executive order, this is not anything Earth-shattering. These name changes are simple distractions and really only serve the MAGA base. This is for no one else. Donald Trump is taking anything to do with Mexico, Canada, or, in Mount Denali’s case, indigenous people and serving it up as a racial and nationalist trope to the deeply racist and isolationist members of the Republican electorate. And they eat it up, down to every last crumb, every single time. Every time President Trump does one of these executive orders or suggests via social media that he is going to change the name of some other international land or water mass, it is a distraction from how truly terrible this administration is fumbling the ball. This, with respect to the Iran war and the trade war with Canada, which is deeply harming American manufacturing, refineries, and farmers. If Donald Trump can keep enough of his MAGA base excited by nonsensical name changes, it is another day he is able to show his ass on the global stage and get away with it.

Not one of these renaming farces achieves any goals or creates tangible progress that improves the lives of the American working class. All it does is continue to bolster the concept that this administration is fascist. There is a stark difference between having pride in one’s country and attempting to rewrite history or remove “undesirables” from core tenets of our founding and historical fabric to serve a supremacist sect of the population.