Donald Trump’s 'Gulf of America' name change sparks comparisons to Elon Musk's Twitter/X rebrand

Donald Trump and Elon Musk continue to enjoy a close working relationship now that the former is once again president of the United States, and the latter is heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (yes, known as DOGE for short) with the aim of tackling wasteful spending, but Twitter/X users have now spotted an amusing similarity between the pair’s line of work.

Back in October 2022, Musk became the owner of Twitter, and eventually ended up killing off the beloved blue bird (RIP Larry), only to replace it with a black and white ‘X’ logo, representing the company’s new name of… well… X.

And despite Musk going to some rather ridiculous lengths to get us all to call Twitter by its new name, many still prefer not to call it X out of nostalgia, or outright spite, with the idea of “deadnaming” Twitter in retaliation for Musk’s anti-trans views becoming a popular online trend.

But now Trump has brought about a name change of his own, signing an executive order on his first day in office (for the second time) titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness” which included a demand to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America’ in “recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people”.

Google has already said it will change the name of the ocean basin for US users, showing both its new and former labels, once its name is updated in the US Geographic Names System.

On Sunday, as Air Force One flew over the Gulf of Mexico en route to the Super Bowl, Trump signed a declaration announcing 9 February would henceforth be known as ‘Gulf of America Day’.

When Musk reposted a picture of Trump posing with the declaration that same day, many were quick to respond by pointing out the parallels:

Another user replied to say the “same will happen” with the ‘Gulf of America’ that is happening with X, where people will stick to the original:

Podcaster Ryan Shead expressed a similar sentiment:

And given Trump recently fumed over Time magazine coming up with a cover of Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk as president, who knows how he’ll take another comparison to the Twitter/X owner…

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