He sounds ambitious ... but also over ambitious ::: “A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” said new US Prez Trump :: Can he ??

“A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” the US President said on shortly after he was sworn in for the second time after he was voted out in 2020 and again voted back to power in 2024 !!

Newly sworn-in President Donald Trump takes part in a signing ceremony in the President’s Room following the 60th inaugural ceremony on 20 January 2025, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Photograph: Melina Mara/Reuters/The Guardian 

There is no formal international agreement or protocol for the naming of maritime areas, and no international body has the final word on maritime names, although the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) seeks to standardise names and resolve disputes.

Unlike other measures announced by Trump on his first day as the 47th US president, the name change was not the subject of an executive order – although he said that would happen in “a short time from now”, says an article in 'The Guardian', London.  

In theory, Trump action would be sufficient to change the Gulf’s name in official documents within the US, but other countries would not be obliged to follow suit.  

Such discrepancies in naming have often caused diplomatic tensions between neighbouring countries, as in the case of the body of water separating Iran from Saudi Arabia, referred to as the Persian Gulf by the former and the Arabian Gulf by the latter.

Japan and South Korea have long been embroiled in a row over what to call the waters between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago.

Tokyo calls it the Sea of Japan, citing maps written by Catholic priests and European explorers dating back to the 17th century, but South Korea complains that it evokes Japan’s colonisation of the peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and refers to it as the East Sea.

And while the sea between Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam is widely known as the South China Sea in English, it is known as the West Philippine Sea in the Philippines, the East Sea in Vietnam, and the South Sea in China.

Others, seeking a compromise have suggested calling it the Southeast Asia Sea.

Within the US, the US Board on Geographic Names is in charge of maintaining uniform geographic name usage across the federal government.

On its website the board says it “discourages name changes unless there is a compelling reason”, adding: “Generally, the most important policy regarding names is local use and acceptance.”

Trump embraces role of demagogue on divine mission to reshape America - writes David Smith for 'The Guardian' 

Sworn in as the 47th US president at the US Capitol in Washington, Trump delivered an inaugural address that cast himself as a holy warrior and made his “American carnage” speech from 2017 seem almost innocent.

The first convicted criminal to take the oath of office channeled eight years of grievance and retribution to roast his predecessor, Joe Biden, sitting just feet away, as both his biological family and adopted family – the tech billionaire boys – looked on.  

“My life was saved for a reason,” he said, recalling how he survived an assassination attempt by inches at a campaign rally on a Pennsylvania field last year. “I was saved by God to make America great again… For American citizens, January 20 2025 is liberation day.”

The speech quickly dispelled notions that Trump might be older, wiser and more unifying this time, that the dire warnings of the election campaign, in which his own former officials branded him a fascist, were just hype in the heat of political battle.

The only bipartisan thing about Trump on Monday was his purple checked tie and opening promise of “the golden age of America”. 

Vice-President JD Vance, whose swearing in by conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh was another “owning the libs” moment, wore a tie of familiar Maga red.

To the president’s left were the old guard. Biden, already shrivelled by loss of power, like an old king reduced to a commoner, spent much of the speech with hand over mouth as if trying not to vomit as his legacy crumbled before his eyes. 

Next to him was the outgoing vice-president Kamala Harris, wearing funereal black and working hard to maintain a poker face. Behind them Doug Emhoff, former president Barack Obama, who was Michelle-less, and the Clintons and Bushes, noted Smith. 

Trump’s return to the White House is a carefully choreographed display of brute force

Trump’s team has learned how to weaponize his power over the Republican party to achieve their political goals -- says another article in 'The Guardian'. 

The analysis piece penned by Hugo Lowell in Washington says -- 

The congressional planning committee scrambled to accommodate Trump’s wishes and he was sworn in as the 47th commander in chief on a special stage that was surrounded by studio lights and guests that included the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Donald Trump swept back into the presidency in a display of brute force power on Monday, seizing control of the optics of the inaugural ceremony and then the federal government before he is expected to sign more than 200 executive actions as his aides took over the West Wing.

The return of Trump to office was choreographed on his terms – and notably, for television – after he announced in a Truth Social post without telling anyone first that he was moving the outdoor ceremony inside the rotunda of the US Capitol because of the cold.

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