Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) took little time in following through on her vow to draw up legislation to make President-elect Donald Trump's latest antic a reality.
Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference Tuesday he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America."
"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."
Immediately following his remarks, Greene posted on X in support of the idea — and vowed to make it happen
"President Trump's second term is off to a GREAT start," she wrote. "I'll be introducing legislation ASAP to officially change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to its rightful name, the Gulf of America!"
In a follow-up post on Tuesday afternoon, Greene shared the text of the legislation and said it would be ready to file Thursday morning. She said Mexican cartels use the gulf to "traffic humans, drugs, weapons, and God knows what else" — and that the Mexican government "allows them to do it."
"The American people are footing the bill to protect and secure the maritime waterways for commerce to be conducted. Our U.S. armed forces protect the area from any military threats from foreign countries," she said. "It's our gulf. The rightful name is the Gulf of America and it's what the entire world should refer to it as."
Greene concluded: "We already have the bill written with legislative council and ready to file first thing Thursday morning. Congress has to take the Trump Agenda mandate seriously and that means acting fast to enact it."
The text specifies that "Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico shall be deemed to be a reference to the 'Gulf of America.'"
The bill calls for the Commerce secretary, acting through the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to oversee the implementation of the renaming. Furthermore, each federal agency would have six months to update documents and maps.
Mexican cartels currently use the Gulf of Mexico to traffic humans, drugs, weapons, and God knows what else while the Mexican government allows them to do it.
The American people are footing the bill to protect and secure the maritime… pic.twitter.com/m0Nh3a6vuq
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 7, 2025
Hardest-core America First': Steve Bannon fantasizes about Trump annexing whole continent
Matthew Chapman
January 7, 2025 
Steve Bannon, former advisor to former U.S. President and now President-elect Donald Trump, arrives for a pre-trial conference hearing in his fraud case stemming from a fundraising effort to build a border wall, at the New York Criminal Court, in New York City, U.S., November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Kent J. Edwards
President-elect Donald Trump has lately doubled down on his obsession with annexing new territory into the United States, from his desire to buy Greenland to his ultimatum for Canada to become a U.S. state if it wants to avoid tariffs, to most recently calls to reclaim the Panama Canal Zone and turn the Gulf of Mexico into the "Gulf of America."
But even all of this wasn't enough for longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon. On his latest "War Room" episode on Tuesday speaking to far-right activist Jack Posobiec, he fantasized about Trump seizing the entirety of the North American continent.
"I say this as someone who actually served there, but you know, if these guys down in Central America or other parts of the Caribbean have an issue with the United States using their overseas bases, then why don't you go have a conversation about that with the Castro family?" said Posobiec, who was a key player in spreading the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory. "Because they've been trying to kick us out of Guantanamo Bay since they came to power. But where is the United States' oldest overseas base? ... it's in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
And the U.S. remains there, he said, because it's in our "geopolitical and geostrategic interest to control the sea lanes in our own backyard. The Gulf of America has to happen."
ALSO READ: Trump intel advisor Devin Nunes still dismisses Russian election meddling as a 'hoax'
Trump is absolutely right about the Panama Canal, he added, because "clearly that is the key choke point here in this region" and "China is going on a buying frenzy" with "debt-trap diplomacy" — and he blasted what he called the same people who pushed for U.S. involvement in the Middle East and Ukraine for not wanting to control this region, when it's of much greater import to us.
"Let's put that map up," agreed Bannon, showing a picture of America controlling the entire continent of North America. "For the hardest-core America First guys, okay? If you want Fortress America, Trump's giving you Fortress America. Look at that right there, all the way up from Panama to Greenland, and he's talking about Canada."
"Can he pull any of this off?" Bannon added. "Hey, it's Donald Trump. Remember how they mocked him about being president? Remember how they mocked him and ridiculed him, when we had his back, this group in January 2021. I think that's a lot harder than what he's talking about now."
Watch the entire episode below or at the link here.
GOP senator: U.S. needs to take back Panama Canal in case of war with China
Sarah K. Burris
January 7, 2025
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) voiced his support of President-elect Donald Trump's suggestion to use military force to regain control of the Panama Canal while speaking to Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Tuesday.
Tuberville has long complained that China has a growing influence over the canal and that ISIS was sneaking into the United States through an unsecured border by making their way from the Middle East to Panama and then heading north to the United States.
"Over the last few years, China signed 30 contracts with the Panamanians, some of it to do with the Canal and Panamanians are now trying to get out of some of those contracts because the Chinese have breached some of those contracts, which we need as the United States of America to protect Panama because that’s how important it is to all of us," Tuberville said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in 2023.
ALSO READ: Busted: Tommy Tuberville invested in defense contractor while blocking military nominations
Tuberville went to Panama in the weeks that followed.
"We've gotta take the Panama Canal back. We've gotta do something because if we were to happen to go to war with China over Taiwan and they were to shut the Panama Canal down, we'd have to go 8 to 10,000 miles just to get things back to the war zone," said Tuberville to Kudlow.
See the video below or at the link here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
SD congressman drafts bill to authorize Trump’s potential purchase of Panama Canal
U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, speaks with students on May 19, 2023, in Sioux Falls. (Joshua Haiar/SD Searchlight)
U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, said Wednesday he will introduce legislation that would authorize President-elect Donald Trump to purchase the Panama Canal “if he can get a good deal.”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not,” Johnson said, “but I do know I want to give President Trump the flexibility he needs to examine it.”
Those comments came during a Wednesday evening tele-town hall with constituents. Earlier in the day, Johnson spoke about the idea on Fox News. He will introduce the bill Friday, he said, ahead of a dinner he plans to attend Sunday with the president-elect and other guests at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
Trump said Tuesday during a press conference that he would not rule out using military force to take control of the canal.
The United States built the Panama Canal in the early 1900s. In 1977, in response to Panamanian demands for control of the canal, then-President Jimmy Carter signed treaties that led to a full transfer in 1999.
Carter gave a speech at the time saying the agreements would convert Panama from a “passive and sometimes deeply resentful bystander into an active and interested partner,” and would lead to “cooperation and not confrontation” between the U.S. and Panama.
A company in Hong Kong, CK Hutchison Holdings, currently operates seaports on each side of the canal. Hong Kong is a former British Colony that has maintained a separate government and economic system since being handed over to China in 1997.
Fears have risen about China’s potentially growing influence over the canal as China has exerted more influence over Hong Kong in recent years.
Johnson said that’s a problem for the United States, which sends 40% of its ocean shipping container traffic through the canal.
“Donald Trump wants to kill the trade deficit,” Johnson said. “We can’t do that if we can’t count on the Panama Canal.”
South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com.
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