On May 9, 2025, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum shared that her government had filed a lawsuit against Google for the company’s labeling of the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America.” Google’s decision was made on February 9, right after the White House, under the Trump Administration, passed an executive order to rename the Gulf to “Gulf of Mexico.”
Titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness,” Trump’s executive order also renamed Mount Denali, North America’s tallest peak, back to Mount McKinley after former President William McKinley. The mountain has been named Mount McKinley twice—the first time being before it was named Mount Denali in 2015 by former President Barack Obama as a way to recognize the Alaskan Natives’ cultural heritage and show appreciation for their language. Both name changes, the Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, have been adopted by Google and several other companies but met with resistance from Mexico and other countries, including the United Kingdom. The U.S. Interior Department was tasked with renaming the body of water to the Gulf of America on all government websites and documents.
While President Sheinbaum questioned the move’s legality, the U.S. retains territorial rights over parts of the Gulf, possibly giving it authority to make the change. However, Mexico also sovereign claims over the Gulf, which borders its eastern and southeastern states. In response, President Sheinbaum asserted that Mexico would not recognize the name. Then, she wrote a letter to Google, playfully joking and asking the company to rename the body of water to “América Mexicana” instead. Despite Sheinbaum’s pushback, Google cited its long history in following through with government updates on an X post on January 27, and explained that it would be updating Google Maps in the U.S. to show Mount McKinley and the Gulf of America.
Since both the United States and Mexico share parts of the Gulf, the Gulf appears in Google Maps as the Gulf of America within the United States and as the Gulf of Mexico within Mexico. Everywhere else, it appears as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).” Although this action may have seemed like a compromise for some, President Sheinbaum did not see it that way.
Instead, Google’s actions provoked anger for her and the rest of Mexico, serving as ridicule and humiliation for the nation. Sheinbaum further reasserted her previous claims by saying that if the roles were reversed, she “would have no business in telling them (Google) to rename a state, a mountain, or a lake.” After Chris Turner, the Vice President for governmental affairs and public policy at Google, sent a letter to the Mexican government to justify these claims and reinstate that people in Mexico would still see the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps, Mexico’s foreign ministry responded a day later. In his letter, Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente wrote that renaming the gulf, even if only for American users, still “exceeds the powers of any national authority or private entity.” To avoid an overreach of power, Fuente concluded that he would take legal action if deemed appropriate.
Following Sheinbaum’s lawsuit announcement, details of the case remained undisclosed, and Google has yet to respond publicly. As multinational corporations like Google navigate competing national narratives, their decisions have major global diplomatic consequences. For Mexico, the naming of the Gulf is more than semantics, and it serves as a matter of sovereignty and respect. Whether the lawsuit will change policy or not, the dispute highlights the growing tension between the US and Mexico and technological influence on international diplomacy.
Written by Claire Liu
