The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, repeated this Tuesday that Mexico is “essentially” controlled by drug cartels and has reiterated his threat to impose tariffs against its southern neighbor if the Government of President Claudia Sheinbaum does not achieve radically stop fentanyl trafficking to the United States. In a press conference at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, he also proposed changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to call it the “Gulf of America,” a “very beautiful” name.
It was the first press conference that Trump had given since the beginning of this year, and he did not hold back in his statements. The Republican has insisted that he is completely “serious” in his threat of tariffs against Canada and Mexico, the United States’ partners in the North American free trade area, unless the governments of both countries take the measures he demands. , including reducing its trade deficits with Washington.
Since winning the presidential election in November, Trump has made a series of expansionist statements in which he has proposed regaining control of the Panama Canal, has suggested that Canada should be a state of the United States and has proposed the purchase of Greenland, a territory autonomous from Denmark. This Tuesday he proposed a name change to the Gulf of Mexico, which according to him should begin to be called “Gulf of America.” Although it does not seem that his proposal is intended to be a tribute to the continent, but rather a reference to the United States, which its citizens usually refer to simply as “America.”
“We are going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which is beautiful and covers a lot of territory. What a beautiful name, and so appropriate,” he declared in his appearance before the media, in which he promised a “new golden era for the United States.”
In it, he also complained that Canada does not fulfill its obligation as a NATO member to allocate at least 2% of its GDP to Defense, and depends on US forces. “It’s fine, but they’re going to have to pay for it,” he insisted.
“The same with Mexico,” he stressed. “We have a deficit with Mexico. And we help them a lot. Essentially, they are run by the cartels. I can’t let that happen. Mexico really has problems, many problems. “It is a very dangerous place.”
The next president of the United States also lamented in his speech that the outgoing president, Joe Biden, has taken advantage of the last days of his mandate to prohibit oil and gas exploitation in most of the federal waters, both on the coasts East and West as in Alaska. A law from Congress may be necessary to change the Democrat’s order, but Trump has promised to reverse it “on the first day” of his term, on January 20. To do this, he assured, he is willing to resort to the courts “if necessary.”
