The Associated Press said one of its reporters was barred from entry to a White House event because of the news organization’s decision to not refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” as decreed by President Trump.
Both Apple Maps and Google Maps now call the body of water the “Gulf of America” following Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order on the name change. The Associated Press previously said it would continue to refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico, which has been known by that name for more than 400 years.
On Tuesday, AP executive editor Julie Pace said the news org was informed by the White House that if AP “did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office.” On Tuesday afternoon, an AP reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing at the White House, according to Pace. The event was attended by Trump and mega-billionaire Elon Musk, who has become a top adviser to the president as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (aka DOGE).
“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” Pace said in a statement. “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.”
White House Correspondents’ Association president Eugene Daniels slammed the Trump administration’s move, saying in a statement: “The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions. The move by the administration to bar a reporter from the Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable.”
National Press Club president Mike Balsamo blasted the White House’s action as “a direct attack on press freedom” and called on the Trump administration to immediately reverse course.
“No administration gets to decide how journalists do their jobs. The role of a free press is not to serve as an extension of any administration,” Balsamo said in a statement. “Barring a journalist from an official event because their newsroom refuses to conform to government-imposed language is more than an attack on one reporter or outlet — it is an assault on the First Amendment and the public’s right to know. The role of the press is not to take orders from the government but rather to hold the government accountable.”
Punishing journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology is an alarming attack on press freedom. That’s viewpoint discrimination, and it’s unconstitutional. President Trump has the authority to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a news organization for using another term. The role of our free press is to hold those in power accountable, not to act as their mouthpiece. Any government efforts to erode this fundamental freedom deserve condemnation.
Trump, on his first day in office for a second term as U.S. president, signed an executive order that among other things directed the Secretary of the Interior to adopt the name “Gulf of America” to replace the long-held name of the body of water “extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba.”
“The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America,” Trump’s order said.
The AP, in a style guide decision announced last month, said it would continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.” Trump’s executive order also said Alaska’s Denali mountain would be revert to its previous name, Mount McKinley; the AP said it would recognize that change, because the “area lies solely in the United States and as president, Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.”
Apple made the change from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Tuesday for users of its maps app in the United States and said it would soon roll out the new name for all users globally, per Bloomberg.
According to Google, it made the change after the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) in the U.S. officially updated “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.” The internet giant said people using Google Maps in the U.S. will see Gulf of America, people in Mexico will see Gulf of Mexico and everyone else will see both names.
