'Alarming': AP claps back after being barred from Oval Office for keeping 'Gulf of Mexico'

Matthew Chapman

Feb. 12, 2025, 12:15 a.m.

The Associated Press has raised alarms that President Donald Trump is restricting its access to the Oval Office out of retaliation for not going along with his order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

According to Politico, "the White House warned the AP — known for its stylebook that many newsrooms follow — that if it did not change its guidance on the body of water, its on-call reporter would be blocked from attending the event, the wire service said."

“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” said Julie Pace, AP's executive editor. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

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One of Trump's first executive orders upon taking office was to direct the federal government to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America — a nod to his ambitions to expand American territory that also includes his efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark, retake control of the Panama Canal Zone, and even annex Canada.

It also accompanies Trump's aggressive push to undo renames of places that were conducted in recent years for cultural sensitivity, including reverting Denali, the tallest peak in Alaska, to "Mount McKinley" and, this week, reverting Fort Liberty in North Carolina to "Fort Bragg." In that case, the base's name comes from Private First Class Roland Bragg — who served in the Army during World War II — rather than Braxton Bragg, the Confederate general for whom it was initially named.

While Trump's executive order on the "Gulf of America" only applies to official government documents, some private companies have followed his lead in the name change; most notably, Google now applies the name on its maps app to users who access it from within the United States.