It will take more than President Donald Trump’s signature to erase the Gulf of Mexico.
Myriad federal programs will now be subject to an extraordinary exercise in governance by find-and-replace. Private commercial ventures will have to decide whether to rebrand themselves or risk being left behind. Some high seas confusion is inevitable.
“I can’t speak to the legality of doing this,” former NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad said in an interview. “I can say I think it’s a distraction from the mission.”
Speaking just days after stepping down as the agency’s head during the Biden administration, Spinrad characterized as “nationalistic bravado” Trump’s Jan. 20 renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”