The state of Florida became the first U.S. state to officially refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Monday when issuing an emergency declaration ahead of a major winter weather event.
The National Weather Service has issued winter storm warnings and extreme cold warnings for multiple counties and towns across northern Florida, including Tallahassee, Pensacola, and Jacksonville, prompting Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to declare a weather emergency on Monday evening.
Trump has not yet issued any official change of policy but has declared that it will be the U.S. position going forward that it is the Gulf of America, not the Gulf of Mexico.
In Florida’s emergency declaration on Inauguration Day, it was referred to as the Gulf of America when describing the weather situation.
It states that “an area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America, interacting with Arctic air, will bring widespread impactful winter weather to North Florida beginning Tuesday, January 21, 2025.”
Earlier in the evening, DeSantis announced the emergency in a post on X, but did not include any geographic or meteorological details that would mention the Gulf.
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