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Mexico’s President laughs at Trump. Suggests renaming US: "Mexican America. That sounds nice” [1]
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Date: 2025-01-08
A new Iron Lady
Claudia Sheinbaum is a fighter. Consider this. She — a Jewish woman — is President of a Catholic country rooted in machismo tradition. Her election wasn’t even close. She won with 61% of the vote — 33 percentage points more than second place. And by 7 points more than her predecessor. There is no doubt she knows how to navigate her way through the knife-wielders in the political thickets. Think Margaret Thatcher — although their politics are different.
In an interesting coincidence, both Scheinbaum and Thatcher have science backgrounds. Maggie had a Chemistry MA from Oxford. Claudia has a PhD in Energy Engineering from UNAM (the highest-ranked university for science in Latin America. (I believe Donald has a BA in non-attendance from Warton’s undergraduate school.)
A Gulf by any other name
On Wednesday, during a press conference in Mexico City, Sheinbaum was asked about Trump’s plan to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. In response, she cited a map from 1607 (13 years before the immigrants on the Mayflower showed up) and said she had a new name for the US.
“Mexican America. That sounds nice,"
Former Mexican culture minister, Jose Alfonso Suarez del Real explained:
“The fact is that Mexican America is recognized since the 17th century as the name for the whole northern part of the (American) continent.”
It’s all absurd, of course. Trump may think he’s being serious. But Sheinbaum is having a laugh at the fatuous blowhard. Trump can demand the US Board on Geographic Names change the Gulf’s name for domestic use. However, the Gulf of Mexico has been the international name for the area for more than 500 years. No one is going to change that.
If the US does change the name, it won’t be the only watery place with more than one name. Ethnic Persians in Iran are fine with the ‘Persian Gulf’ (however that translates in Farsi). Whereas, Arabs in the other countries bordering that body of water prefer the ‘Arabian Gulf’ (whatever that is in Arabic). And the French name for the ‘English Channel’ is ‘La Manche’ (lit: ‘The Sleeve’).
Rendering Trump’s renaming silliness more inane is that most Americans call the damn thing ‘The Gulf’ anyway. And most Mexicans call it ‘El Golfo’ — unless to differentiate it from another gulf.
A moron and his mouth
Trump craves attention so much he’ll say anything, even if it makes him sound like a moron — which is the usual result of him opening his mouth. The MAGAs love it. Hopefully, it will comfort them if they ever realize that Trump in his second term, will not do what he promised. Thus replicating his almost perfect record of failure in his first term. (It would have been a complete failure if it weren’t for the tax cuts for the wealthy.)
Some milquetoasts will suggest that Sheinbaum is taking a chance by poking the bear. They are wrong. Bullies only respect people who do not back down. She also has cards to play. Too many American companies rely on Mexican factories for healthy bottom lines. And Big Ag needs undocumented workers to do business. It is therefore no surprise the incoming administration is already waffling on tariffs and mass expulsions.
As for Trump's other meth-pipe dream, invading Mexico, it’s hard to see that happening. Trump’s cowardice may cause him to denigrate our brave men and women in uniform. But I doubt he’ll welcome the image of dead American soldiers on the news. It’s one thing for young Americans to die fighting terrorism in faraway countries few Americans would ever visit. It’s another for US corpses to pile up in a country popular with retirees, vacationing families, and spring-breakers — that’s right next door.
In addition. I suspect many top generals would quit. And the Pentagon would not rush the planning stage.
Coda
America could have had a smart, tough woman as President. But we (and by ‘we’ I mean less than half of us) chose a different path — twice. It won’t work out any better the second time. Oy vey!
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