Trump jokes about Sheinbaum and the Gulf of Mexico, mimicking her alleged reaction

U.S. President Donald Trump publicly returned to his administration's decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America," this time recounting an alleged phone call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

According to Trump's account, Sheinbaum called him to ask him not to change the gulf's name, to which he responded by mimicking, in a joking tone, what he described as a pleading reaction from the president: "No, no, please." The White House has not offered additional details confirming the exact content of the conversation.

Trump defended the name change by arguing that the United States has a greater share of coastline on the gulf than Mexico does — a claim that, according to available geographic data, does not hold up: Mexico's coastline along the gulf is in fact longer than that of the United States.

The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico was one of the first symbolic measures of the new Trump administration, formalized in official U.S. documents, though the traditional name continues to be recognized internationally, including by Mexico.

The episode comes amid a bilateral relationship marked by trade and migration tensions, in which both governments have sought to maintain a cordial tone in their public communications despite their underlying differences.