Mexican president taunts Trump: ‘Why don't we call it Mexican America?’

MEXICO CITY

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded Wednesday to President-Elect Donald Trump's remarks on renaming the Gulf of Mexico with a nationalistic quip of her own.

As Trump sneered that the Gulf of Mexico, a geographical landmark encompassing the eastern coast of Mexico and the US, should be renamed the “Gulf of America,” Sheinbaum made fun of the overtly nationalistic proposition.

"Obviously, the Gulf of Mexico is recognized by the United Nations, but why don't we call it Mexican America? It sounds pretty, doesn't it? Since 1607, the Constitution of Apatzingán (of 1814) was of Mexican America, so let's call it Mexican America," she said.

The Apatzingan Constitution is the Mexican framework that preceded Mexico's current Constitution at the onset of the country as a nation-state four years after declaring independence from the Spanish empire.

More than an actual counteroffer, Sheinbaum's rebuff follows the Mexican leader's efforts to neutralize Trump's polarizing speech.

Current Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, the foreign minister under former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has experienced Trump's antagonizing foreign policies by being made fun of by the Trump administration for allegedly cowering to Trump's anti-immigration demands -- entirely dismissed the “Gulf of America” remark.

"Well, if we were to meet 30 years from now, the Gulf of Mexico would still be called the Gulf of Mexico. But we are not going to get involved in that debate. What we are going to do is to protect the relationship between the two countries," he said.

Days before taking office, Trump has already made a series of threats toward his southern neighbor and largest commercial partner, including massive deportations, imposing 25% tariffs and labeling drug cartels as terror organizations.

In response, the Sheinbaum administration is preparing for the next four years of a Trump government, said Ebrard.

"What I can say is that we are ready, we have been working for months, we know what we are going to do in each case of the feasible scenarios, so there will be no surprises, and preparations have been made to be on time and in shape and to react intelligently," added Ebrard.