The I'm Not Dumb But Podcast
Welcome to The I'm Not Dumb But Podcast, where we won't claim to have all the answers to life's deepest questions, but we promise you an exciting journey into the realms of knowledge you never knew you needed!
Join friends Cesar, Rob, Chris and Victor as we dive head first into topics that might be mainstream but not common knowledge. No topic is too taboo for us to explore. Let's get curious together!
The I'm Not Dumb But Podcast
From Mexico to 'Murica: One Gulf's Identity Crisis
Trump's executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America" sparked a debate about geographic naming rights, national identity, and international relations. The controversial decision reveals how place names can become proxies for political power plays between nations.
The Gulf's name has historic roots dating back to 16th century Spanish explorers, making this sudden shift particularly jarring for historians, geographers, and ordinary citizens alike. Despite over 70% of Americans opposing the change according to recent polling, the administration has forged ahead, even threatening to bar journalists who refuse to adopt the new terminology from White House events.
Beyond the immediate controversy, this episode examines how geographic names become cultural battlegrounds, from "Freedom Fries" to the Denali/McKinley debate. We consider whether this represents genuine patriotism or, "poisonous patriotism" that reflects deeper insecurities about national identity and power projection.
Join us for this thought-provoking conversation about borders, names, and power—and discover why something as seemingly simple as what we call a body of water can reveal so much about international relations and political psychology. Head to our social media to share your thoughts on this controversial change!
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Welcome back to I'm Not Dumb but Podcast. Today we will talk about President Trump's controversial decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Why the change? What does a new name mean for the US and Mexico? I'm Not Dumb, but why rename the Gulf of Mexico?
Cesar:Welcome to the I'm Not Dumb but Podcast, where we won't claim to have the answers to life's deepest questions but we'll give you an exciting journey into the realms of knowledge you never knew you'd either. Might be mainstream, but not common knowledge. From artificial intelligence to conspiracy theories, no topic is too taboo for us to explore. Let's get curious together.
Chris:I'm your host, chris, and I'm joined by Rob. Hello, cesar, you, victor.
Victor:How y'all doing. Chris, be careful using that term. If they catch you saying Gulf of Mexico, you're going to get banned from the White House press rooms.
Rob:Yeah, and can you dress better? I mean, why aren't you wearing a suit?
Cesar:How come you haven't said thank you to us in the last five minutes?
Rob:You're dressed like Adam Sandler at the Oscars.
Chris:You know what I'm going to wear, whatever I want to wear, okay. So now, chris, chill out. But yeah, so I want to know, like, what was your thoughts when Trump announced the name change?
Victor:Pretty soon we're going to changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Rob:I thought he was trolling, I thought it was a joke. And then I checked my Google Maps and it's changed to the Gulf of America. And I was like are other countries changing it? Like are textbooks being rewritten? Like what's happening here?
Cesar:all right, for the first hundred days, right, that's when the president has to like go hard at his agenda. And then I heard that and I was like what?
Chris:yeah, I think that was my first reaction too. I was like why?
Rob:I don't know man, we're just taking over now.
Cesar:There's a funny video, though it's Trump, I think in Air Force One and he's talking about it. He's like Gulf of, and then the pilot comes on Attention on board.
Chris:Ladies and gentlemen, if you could please direct your attention out the right side of the aircraft. Air Force One is currently in international waters For the first time in history, flying over the recently renamed Gulf of America and he's like sounds good, it's funny.
Victor:Yeah, I think my I was kind of like who's asking for this? There's no purpose for it, it doesn't even make fucking sense, to be honest. And then I guess I got to use Google Maps from other countries now Just because I think renaming it is just this. I see it as like poisonous patriotism. But I mean, that's just me. Stop it.
Rob:But why did we have to rename it? I don't know.
Victor:Or isn't that why we're here?
Rob:Yeah, don't ruin the whole.
Cesar:Thing.
Chris:I'm getting ahead of myself. In January 20th 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that has stirred up many emotions, not just within the US, but internationally as well. The executive order Trump signed is called 14172, and it's titled Restoring Names that Honored American Greatness.
Cesar:So there were multiple renames.
Victor:Mount McKinley.
Cesar:Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that. Okay, you're right.
Victor:He's got a fucking hard-on for McKinley for some reason. Wait, what did he rename? So Mount McKinley in Alaska was renamed under Obama to Denali, that's nice.
Rob:I named it after a car Nice, American car no it's the birthplace of water.
Victor:It's the birthplace of water? No, I don't know. The native tribes up there called it Denali, which was like a translation of Tall One, because it's the tallest peak in North America. So under Obama he renamed it Denali. It was named Mount McKinley for no fucking reason besides imperialism. President McKinley never even went there, never even saw this fucking mountain, so it didn't make sense that it was named after him. And then Trump changed, of course, because Obama did something. He's like a fucking child and needs to like undo everything. Obama did. Obama. Well, I'm surprised he didn't name Mount Trump.
Victor:He's trying to become another head on Mount Rushmore that I could see, I could see that, yeah, are they going to add a new head or just redo another one?
Cesar:No, just say all four of them all. Yeah, he probably had to redo it, just one giant head.
Speaker 2:Joe got a big head.
Chris:So the order directs the US Secretary of Interior to change name of the Gulf within 30 days, officially so. This includes US government publications, maps and even the National Weather Service. The idea, as stated, is to honor American identity and, in Trump's view, to secure US interests within the waters. Plus, President Trump declared February 9th as Gulf of America Day, a day that will, in theory, commemorate the new name.
Cesar:Is that going to be a holiday or time and a half? I hope so, because I support it.
Victor:Yeah, I'm all for new holidays. It already passed. Where do we get each other?
Cesar:I'm going to get you a shirt that says Chris, scratch it out and put Victor on it.
Victor:You're going to get like a bucket of dirty water with a little bit of oil in it From the neighbors up north. It in it from the neighbors up north, it's from down south. Where's are we talking?
Cesar:about alaska. No, we're talking about the gulf of mexico.
Rob:No, no, oh, you're talking about that deep water horizon joke, I thought, yeah, sorry did you?
Cesar:forget, still talking about the mountain.
Chris:Never forget you nervous as cats as you guys know, google maps has started showing the name change for US users, while keeping Gulf of Mexico for users in Mexico or the rest of the world. Or the rest of the world. Also, the change has been adopted in the official weather forecast as well. Now you might ask why the Gulf of Mexico? What's wrong with the name that has been around for centuries.
Victor:I've never asked that, you sure, I've never asked that of why it was named the Gulf of Mexico. It actually makes more sense to be named the Gulf of Mexico.
Rob:But isn't Mexico in America Like the Americas?
Victor:But then you should name it the Gulf of Americas. That's a good one, Ooh that would have been good.
Rob:My vote would have been the Americas.
Victor:Or the Gulf of North America, what I think would also be good so if he did that, you'd be for it.
Rob:I would have no problem with it?
Victor:no, okay, so this is a semantics thing. Think about it though. Well, one's talking about a geographical area, one's talking about a specific country, and, if you think about it, when they named it, mexico didn't exist as a country. It was all under the Spanish, and the Spanish had owned everything around the Mexican Peninsula, the Yucatan Peninsula, what's the other?
Rob:Yeah, those are a type of fries Very good. They put cheese on them.
Speaker 2:Try this. The Yucatan is amazing.
Victor:And Florida, so they had owned everything there.
Chris:Hmm, the body of water we're talking about is one of the most significant and unique in the world. It's located in North America, in the bordered by United States, mexico and Cuba, and it plays a key role in global trade, wildlife and the region's economy. I think you're missing an important event.
Cesar:Yeah, what Storms bro.
Victor:The dinosaurs all died there.
Cesar:Oh, the dinosaurs died there.
Rob:Wait, that's where the dinosaurs the crater hit.
Victor:Yeah, on the Yucatan Peninsula. Oh, which isn't that at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, or now the Gulf of America, I thought it was somewhere else.
Cesar:Where did you think it?
Victor:was Cesar. I'm kind of curious.
Rob:My guess is always Arizona, Anytime something weird happens if they find a fossil.
Cesar:There was a crater up there in Greenland somewhere.
Rob:Well, if they don't give it to us, there's going to be a bigger one.
Cesar:We're going to take it.
Rob:We love you. You're very special.
Victor:You know what's funny, I just found this out. So they found this crater in like the 1980s or maybe the 90s that they were like oh, there's a crater here. Oil companies had found it in the 70s and didn't tell anyone. Oh, because they were doing all these like looking for oil and shit. So they were doing all these like scans of the earth and they saw this big fucking crater there, just didn't tell anyone.
Rob:Well, it never came up in conversation there, just didn't tell anyone. Well, it never came up in conversation one of the largest scientific discoveries in like humankind and they're like, oh yeah, that thing yeah, it's been there for like 30 years oh, you guys didn't know about that.
Victor:We've been sitting on the photos also. We're not causing global warming.
Rob:We get that straight right well, there's no such thing as global warming, and they've just renamed it to climate change if I have a little property on the ocean.
Victor:I have a little bit more property. I have a little bit more ocean the gulf of mexico.
Chris:The vital body of water has been around for millions of years, but its name has roots in the 16th century. European explorers, like Spanish conquistadors such as Hernan Cortes, gave it the name.
Victor:Can you put some Spanish in that? Come on, hernan Cortes.
Cesar:Conquistadors.
Rob:Hernan Cortes. Yeah, say it like an Italian.
Victor:At least make him Italian.
Chris:Give me some flavor on that Spanish conquistadors such as Hernan Cortes gave a name Golfo to Mexico. It derives from a Spanish word, golfo, meaning a large bay or inlet, so this term stuck in Spanish-speaking countries even today. What about?
Victor:Mexico. You just translated Gulf.
Rob:But what does Mexico mean?
Chris:Yeah, where did he get Mexico from? Mexico's not Mexico. It didn't exist. Based on what I read, I think after they gained independence I think they just started calling it Gulf of Mexico and it kind of stuck ever since.
Speaker 2:Where does the name Mexico come from? One theory is that it comes from the word metli, meaning and translating as belly, button or center, and the affix go indicating place. So when literally translated, mexico means in the navel of the moon or in the center of the lake of the moon. The reason for such name would be that the city of mexico, the noche, was founded on a small island on the current lake of tishkoko, previously known as the moon lake. The second theory is that it comes from the name of a god named Meshi or Huitzilopochtli, who is said to have led the Mexicans to Tenochtitlan, and by adding the co at the end, mexico would then mean the place where Huitzilopochtli lives.
Chris:All right.
Cesar:Can you give me the history of Corona? Please Corona a Mexican guy got really drunk off a tequila pissed in a glass and then someone drank it and goes I could sell this.
Victor:Thank God for that guy. Just stick to your Modelo, okay, you know you have a job. You have a nine to five.
Chris:Hi, Dios mio. So there was. A recent survey from Marquette University revealed that 71% of Americans are against the name change, while only 29% supported it. The media also weighed in too, with the most outlets continuing to use Gulf of Mexico, despite the executive order. These Associated Press, for example, has refused to use the new name, and this has led to some major tensions. Which word is that the White House has even warned ap that it might bar their journalists from covering presidential events if they don't start using gulf of america that's so stupid.
Victor:They would use that because they also didn't want associated press reporting on them, because they wanted for podcasters and shit to come in and report. Nice, and this is just a side note. Have you watched, like some of the the press conferences and shit to come in and report, and this is just a side note. Have you watched some of the press conferences and shit? There's now a whole bunch of reporters that just do these softball weird, dick-sucking questions of like oh, president Trump, how does it feel to be the guy who comes up with the plans for everything? And you're sitting there like a reporter has this question? They're just glazing them.
Chris:It's all fake news. So Mexico, understandably, is not thrilled about this change. And it's not just about the name. It's a reminder of how US political moves can be perceived as attempts to exert influence or dominance over neighboring countries.
Victor:Wait, Mexico is not happy about this. I can see that. You know what their tariffs just got 5% higher 52nd state after Canada.
Cesar:Let's get it.
Rob:It seems like this is a soft power move.
Chris:Like, I think so, Like personally, I think it was just a power move.
Victor:It's like when your dick is small and you know it, so you need to compensate by doing something rash and nonsensical to make yourself feel better.
Rob:So this is like the proverbial get a Dodge F1, you know 1500. I mean yeah.
Victor:I mean, you're talking about the guy who literally put his name over every building possible.
Rob:It's called branding.
Victor:I built a net worth of more than $10 billion. It's called branding.
Chris:I built a net worth of more than $10 billion. So the Gulf has always been a shared resource, a place where both countries have along enjoyed a relationship of cooperation. So now the immediate reaction to this was mixed. Some supported it, calling it a way to assert American dominance in the region. Others, however, were outraged, pointing out that Gulf of Mexico has been called that for centuries and the name has strong ties to Mexican identity and history. Supporters of the change argued that the name should reflect the geopolitical angle, which is the Gulf of Mexico is home to many US naval bases and oil rigs. So supporters of the name change argued that Gulf is now primarily associated with the United States in terms of military strategy and economic dominance, but not Mexico.
Victor:Was it ever primarily thought as Mexican dominance? Like we share the Gulf, Isn't it? International waters? Yeah, but I think just the name, though. Don't you think I never thought Mexico owned the Gulf of Mexico? I went to the beach in Florida. I never was like I'm in Mexico now, Like that never crossed my mind. Do you think they'll ever change it back? Yeah, Obama's going to change it back.
Cesar:You can do an executive action.
Rob:Yeah, I know, but like are you really going to do that? Are you going to be changing the names back and forth like that's a bad?
Victor:one to be diplomatic. Wouldn't that fuck up contracts?
Rob:that's what I was thinking like.
Cesar:There's gotta be a lot of businesses tied to this name well, listen, if you're under this administration, contracts don't mean shit, so what do you mean?
Rob:doesn't?
Victor:matter yeah, what are you talking?
Cesar:about a lot of these government contracts are trying to cancel them. Contract is legally binding, so a lot of these uh uh companies that have already done the work or currently doing the work are like we want to get paid. So, in terms of like it can change it yes, because everything needs to be on the contract right. If you're signing a contract with any agency, everything has to be on fine print, clear, so anything like that it can. It can kind of affect it, but this administration has shown that contracts don't mean shit. Why do you say that, though? Like what contracts? Nih? A lot of those contracts have been kind of canceled because of Doge, okay, and mostly when Doge has said oh hey, we have found we have kind of canceled contracts. That's what I mean. It's just contractors doing work Okay, okay, yeah, but if you're going to go into government contracting, the first thing they tell you is that make sure that everything on that contract is right the first time, because once you sign it, it's really a bitch that's trying to go back and make any amendments.
Victor:Right. Because if I'm like an oil company right, and I got rights to drill somewhere and it says Gulf of Mexico and another oil company comes in, somehow gets messed up and gets the same rights to drill at the same location, but it says Gulf of America, they have to like settle that in court.
Cesar:Yeah, government contracts if you look at them they're like some of them could be like 100 pages and it's super detailed for that specific reason.
Rob:So by changing the name of this could they avoid some contracts.
Cesar:Let's ask China GPT Confirm A name change doesn't automatically grant the right to cancel a contract, because contracts are legally binding. But there are other circumstances where you may. That has nothing to do with the names oh good.
Rob:So it's really just about what countries are going to adopt this name and which ones are going to resist it, and that's really just a political power play yes, I think only one country, oh, I think only two countries are going to adopt this name and who are the two?
Victor:the us and greenland and israel. I'm just saying like it is, just saying like it is. What does that mean?
Cesar:question chris. What was the official uh response from the mexican government?
Chris:all I know is they were pissed.
Cesar:That's about it well, they were probably pissed because it's an executive action from one country. There is no dialect, there's no dialogue between two countries, two nations, right, they didn't do it in a proper way, but the thing is who has the right though.
Chris:Is it like a country voting or is it like a UN situation, like who has the right regardless?
Cesar:You kind of have to do it diplomatically, right?
Victor:I mean, yeah, if you want it to be internationally recognized sure.
Rob:So Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum, a very Mexican name. Wow, that was racist of you. That's a very Mexican name, it's pronounced.
Victor:Scheinbaum. Yeah, you were just like a very Mexican name Wink wink, wink wink.
Rob:You said it not me like wink, wink, not me, but uh answered to uh us donald trump about the idea of changing the name to the gulf of america, and she is quoted to say he can call it whatever he wants on the american part of it. So I really don't think they care. I mean, I'm sure it was like a you know backhanded dig, but does it really matter? We're just changing books. The rest of the world is not changing theirs, so they're probably thought processes you can call whatever you want.
Chris:To make it simple, it's like if our podcast was called Rob and Caesar's podcast and then, out of nowhere, victor comes in and he was like guys, I'm doing a lot of work, I'm just going to change to Victor's podcast now, like that's pretty much what Trump did.
Victor:I mean, it pretty much is my podcast.
Rob:Well, first of all, let's not throw any ideas out there. Okay, I'm not doing the Victor podcast. Victor's podcast does not have a very good ring to it. We polled and people want to hear, you know a very good ring to it. We polled and people want to hear you know.
Victor:Interesting enough the US portion of the Gulf of Mexico's coastline is about 1,700 miles. The Mexican coastline along the Gulf of Mexico is about 1,743 miles. So they have about 43 miles more coastline than we do.
Rob:Interesting, I don't know. Yeah, if I knew that I'd say majority rules there.
Victor:Yeah, it's like remember when we decided to just unlawfully invade two countries at the same time or close to each other and we just decided to start calling them Freedom Fries because the French didn't want to come with us. Yes, I remember that. What do you call them now? Do you still call them Freedom Fries?
Rob:No, we went back to French Fries.
Victor:I never left French Fries.
Rob:to be honest, I had a stint in freedom fries, uh, but they were never that on the menu, so I went with french fries I think they just say fries for the most part.
Chris:Oh yeah I've never said fries french fries, yeah, or regular fries, yeah, regular fries, I think, because they call curly fries, then curly fries, just curly fries that's why you call regular fries regular fries or if you're australian, you call them like fry fries or some chips do they do chips?
Rob:I don't know, but they're very like british, you know, so I could see them do chips.
Victor:Wow, that's, I mean let's be that's one person on this podcast opinion.
Rob:Uh, I support australia's independence oi, oi oi listen, I am a historian when it comes to australia so I'm just dating it back there.
Victor:I'm here in the colonies. I'm here living in the colonies because I am a historian, and by historian.
Rob:I watched something on the History Channel.
Cesar:Ancient aliens. Are these markers left for aliens arriving to Earth from space?
Victor:I mean to be honest, I'll probably still call it the Gulf of Mexico.
Cesar:Yeah.
Rob:It's like the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Chris:Yeah, I know right, you can rename it.
Cesar:When are you going to say the Gulf of Mexico? When will that ever come up?
Rob:Yeah, I don't really use it in my regular day vernacular.
Victor:Well, I'll use it if I'm in Mexico all the time.
Rob:Like when you go down to Cancun or hey, you want to dip in, really Take a dip into the Gulf.
Cesar:Yeah, I don't think I've ever used it.
Rob:I'll be honest. When I heard of this, I had to look it up on a map. I was like is that on the east side, or?
Victor:the west side.
Rob:Majority of Americans. We don't know much about geography.
Victor:Again, I think you're speaking for yourself.
Rob:Not you, because you know how atomic clocks work.
Chris:I look at a map every once in a while, professor Victor, here.
Victor:Yeah, mr Dinosaur, asteroid Hit Russia.
Cesar:I thought, it was Greenland.
Rob:Close enough. I'm just telling the people what they already know. Has he said that he wants to change anything else?
Chris:Not that I know of.
Victor:Yeah, he wants to change Ukraine to Russia. Oh, it's a joke, it's a Ukrainian war joke. Oh, right, right, right, right, right, too soon. All right, guys, I didn't know.
Cesar:For them it will be yeah.
Victor:You're right now not in a very good position.
Chris:I don't know, maybe he has some military agenda, like a naval, where he wants to put more ships out there.
Victor:For what I don't know. It's not contested territory.
Cesar:Well, after everyone finds out that dinosaurs died there, it might be.
Chris:You said you've got a T-rex. I wonder now in the history class, when they talk about gulf of america, they're gonna be like yeah, gulf of america guys. Yeah, high five.
Victor:And like get all cheered up. It is if you're in a in school in like missouri, mississippi, alabama, places where like, where you have your textbook next to your Bible, those places and on the third day, God created the Remington Bull Action Rifle.
Chris:So where does that leave us? Is it just a name or is it something more? The Gulf of Mexico, now Gulf of America, has become a political battleground representing the larger cultural and geopolitical tensions between the United States and its southern neighbor. For now it looks like the debate will continue, but as for the new name, it's already on the maps for some, but will it ever stick in the heart of minds of the people?
Cesar:only time will tell final thoughts caesar listen, I haven't said the gulf of america since probably high school. You haven't said what? Oh my bad, scratch that. I haven't said the gulf of mexico, the gulf of mexico since high school, years and years ago. I don't think I'm going to say the hookup from america either. I did not understand this executive action when it came out. Still don't, don't understand it. But you guys might be right. It might be some sort of soft power move that only they and their supporters understand. That's far from me. It's whatever victor.
Victor:Yeah, listen, like I said before, I'm probably still gonna call it the gulf of mexico. I don't think the name change kind of makes sense. It's been this way for like hundreds of years. It's not offending anyone, at least that I know of. It doesn't offend me as an American to call it the Gulf of Mexico. I think it's some like small dick fucking moves to just make yourself feel stronger. What?
Rob:about you, rob. Listen, I think it was a good move, and let me tell you why. I understand him trying to expand patriotism and clear things up. I mean, we are in the Americas, right, so let's call it the Gulf of America. That's one thing. But if you go on to the other side of Mexico, there's another Gulf, and out of the four people here, only one of us probably knows what it's called the gulf of california. Did you just look that up?
Rob:yes, because I told you I don't know now the gulf of california has only 350 miles of coastline, where mexico has approximately 1200 miles of coastline. So we're talking about the same situation and we call that the gulf of calline. So we're talking about the same situation and we call that the Gulf of California. But we're getting so worked up about the Gulf of America, so to me he wants to go ahead and change it. We already have a precedent set with the Gulf of California. It's a nice gulf, it's the best gulf, it's one of the best, better gulfs we have in the United States. And sounds good, makes sense to me, says it on my map, I don't know any better.
Victor:So for the record, maga does not consider california part of the united states.
Rob:Yeah, what do you?
Chris:now I'm completely done yeah as always, let us know what what you think. Do you support the name change or do do you think it's a step too far? Head over to our social media page to join the conversation. We want to thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today's show, don't forget to name drop this podcast to your friends and family To stay updated on new content. Check us out on YouTube at I'm Not Dumb, but Podcast Stay curious.
Victor:Later.
