Gulf of America' embraced by oil companies

As far as British oil giant BP is concerned, the catastrophic oil spill that tainted Louisiana's shores more than a decade ago didn't take place in the Gulf of Mexico. It took place in the Gulf of America.

- Benoît Morenne & Collin Eaton

The company is one of several that have embraced President Trump's official recasting of the more than 400-year-old name. One of Trump's first acts in office was to sign an executive order renaming the 620,000-square-mile international body of water, which is bounded by the U.S., Mexico and Cuba, as the "Gulf of America."

On its website and in recent filings, BP refers dozens of times to its drilling operations in the Gulf of America, as well as to the 2010 "Gulf of America oil spill." Chevron and Shell have followed suit, as have Google, Microsoft and Apple, whose maps now feature Trump's preferred name for U.S. users.

"We're calling it Gulf of America," Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth said in a Jan. 31 conference call with analysts. "That's the position of the U.S. government now."

The move speaks to the extraordinary sway Trump holds over some of the largest American corporations. Many business leaders—who for months have worked to ingratiate themselves with the new White House—have been quick to abide by his edicts.

Even before Trump pushed to end diversity, equity and inclusion—or DEI—programs in the federal government, companies including Meta and McDonald's scaled back their DEI efforts. Companies are also reconsidering climate-change efforts and settling lawsuits from Trump.

Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico applies to federal publications and communications, not internationally, and private entities are free to stick with the original name. But by adopting the president's preferred designation, they are signaling a willingness to play along to get along, corporate strategists said.