Featured Image Credit: YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, World News, US News, News
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, World News, US News, News
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo - the President of Mexico - was this week forced to respond after newly sworn-in US leader Donald Trump signed an executive order related to foreign policy.
Following a series of similar promises, the 78-year-old Republican vowed to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the 'Gulf of America', amid a tightening on immigration restrictions at the Mexican border.
Since his official inauguration on Monday, Trump pledged to bring back the 'Golden Era' of America by signing a controversial executive order which would declare a 'national emergency' at the US-Mexican border.
At the time, he also declared that illegal entry to America would 'immediately be halted', and that 'criminal aliens' would be returned' where they 'came from'.
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At the time, he also vowed to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico in a statement which sent attendee and former opponent Hilary Clinton into a fit of giggles.
Speaking earlier this month (7 Jan) at a news conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, the father-of-five described the 'Gulf of America' as having a 'nice ring to it', adding, 'what a beautiful name and it's appropriate'.
Discussing the body of 1,700 mile-long coastline, Trump described the Gulf as an 'integral asset' to the States, whose 'natural resources and wildlife remain central to America’s economy today'.
Addressing Trump's controversial executive order on Tuesday (21 January) during a daily press conference, Sheinbaum Pardo brutally announced that US residents can abide by his name-change all they want, but that Mexicans would not be following in tow.
Laughing at the prospect, she declared: "He says that he will call it the Gulf of America on its continental shelf.
"For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico, and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico."
Using Trump's own logic to refute him, Sheinbaum Pardo also argued in response that the US should rename itself 'Mexican American' based on a 17th century map which supports this title for the area.
Changing the name of something that has had its title since the late 1600s isn't an easy process.
The Board of Geographic Names (BGN) has long been the federal body in charge of the titles of our world's countries, and is largely known for its reluctance to make amendments.
On top of this, it apparently cannot enforce any name changes on a global scale.