President-elect Donald Trump just may have met his match in Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum.
As Trump has touted renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” Sheinbaum pulled out her own playbook — albeit a sarcastic one — and proposed North America should be renamed “América Mexicana,” or “Mexican America,” NBC News reported.
Sheinbaum made her proposal while standing in front of a 17th-century world map — back to when the area was referred that way.
“That sounds nice, no?” she said sarcastically.
She added the Gulf of Mexico had been named that since 1607.
During a press conference Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect added Greenand and the Panama Canal for U.S. acquisition.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,” Trump said. “That covers a lot of territory, the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”
IJR reported Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she would introduce legislation to that effect on Thursday morning.
The interaction between Trump and Sheinbaum may be a foreshadow of things to come.
“Humor can be a good tactic, it projects strength, which is what Trump responds to. It was probably the right choice on this issue,” Brian Winter, vice president of the New York-based Council of the Americas, said. “Although President Sheinbaum knows it won’t work on everything — Trump and his administration will demand serious engagement from Mexico on the big issues of immigration, drugs and trade.”
It comes after other stern but collaborative responses by Sheinbaum regarding Trump’s proposals.
On Trump’s pitch to slap 25% tariffs on Mexican imports, Sheinbaum warned that if the new U.S. administration imposes tariffs on Mexico, her administration would respond with similar measures. She said any sort of tax was “not acceptable and would cause inflation and job losses for the United States and Mexico.”
Trump has also gone after Canada by referring to it as the 51st state, which also elicited a sarcastic response from one Canadian official.
Canada’s CTV News reported that Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded to a reporter about Trump’s threats to impose a 25% tariff on products from Canada and Mexico in the first hours of his presidency, in addition to making Canada the “51st state.”
“You know something, to the president, I’ll make him a counteroffer. How about if we buy Alaska, and we’ll throw in Minnesota and Minneapolis at the same time,” Ford said.
