Mexico’s president calls for parts of US to be renamed ‘Mexican America’

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Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday responded to US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico, suggesting that the US territory that used to be part of Mexico should be called “Mexican America”.

President of Mexico The comments came after Trump made the call on Tuesday The Gulf of Mexico will be renamed The Gulf of America and Canada to become US states, which threatened to disrupt one of the world’s largest trading blocs.

Trump’s suggestions came during a free press conference, where he also refused to rule out the use of force to gain access. Greenland or control the Panama Canal.

The president-elect, who takes office in less than two weeks, has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all imports from Mexico and Canada unless his neighbors do more to stop the flow of migrants and drugs, despite trade between the three countries. the bloc’s free trade agreement, the USMCA.

In his Wednesday morning news conference, Scheinbaum noted that parts of the US territory, including California and Texas, were part of the Spanish Empire and later independent Mexico before the territory was ceded to Washington in the 19th century.

“We’re going to call it ‘Mexican America,’ isn’t that nice,” he told reporters, showing off a 1607 colonial-era map.

Leaders in Mexico and Canada are grappling with how best to respond to Trump’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric against their countries without alienating their domestic audiences.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who went to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for dinner in late November after the tariffs were first raised, said there was “a snowball’s chance in hell” of his country becoming part of the US.

Earlier in the week, Ontario’s conservative Premier Doug Ford made a “counter-offer” to Trump to buy Alaska and Minnesota, the two US states that border Canada.

Ford in December has started a multimillion-dollar ad campaign promoting Ontario’s economic and cultural ties to the U.S. in an effort to counter Trump’s antagonism to Canada.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said Trump’s comments “show a complete lack of what makes Canada a strong country.”

Sheinbaum, the left-wing leader who took office in October, has taken a slightly more combative approach to Trump than other world leaders since winning the US election. He initially hinted at retaliatory tariffs against Washington, although the two have since spoken by phone. and avoid making offensive comments about each other in public.

His government is bracing for mass deportations of Mexicans and possibly citizens of other countries along its northern border, as well as pressing for greater US involvement in the fight against drug cartels, in addition to a potential trade war.

U.S.-born Republican Jorgan Burke, a partner at the Ottawa-based conservative lobbying firm Pathway Group, said Trump knows that neither Canada nor Mexico have any intention of giving up their sovereignty.

“He’s trolling Canadians, but I don’t think the overreaction is warranted,” he said.