Chuck Schumer Says He’s Fine With Trump Renaming Gulf of Mexico for ‘Patriotic’ Reasons — But He Has One Condition
Screenshot via CSPAN.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) offered some surprising words of support for President-elect Donald Trump’s suggestion to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” — but the Senate Democratic Leader had one demand first.
Trump sparked a wave of headlines and memes on Tuesday when he said at a press conference that he intended to change the name of the body of water that is bordered by Cuba, Gulf states like Florida and Texas, as well as hundreds of miles of the Mexican coastline — even drawing a trollish retort from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum suggesting the U.S. be renamed instead “América Mexicana.”
Schumer jumped in the debate in a Senate floor speech Wednesday morning, saying that while Trump “throws out a lot of strange, and rather random, ideas on a regular basis,” he was fine with the idea of working with the president-elect to rename the aquatic body “to sound more patriotic” but “only if he first agrees to work with us on an actual plan to lower costs for Americans.”
Trump “is in over his head” as his second inauguration was approaching, said Schumer, “so he’s doing what he always does in times like this: distract America with crazy ideas.” He scoffed at the renaming proposal as “a zany new idea” that won’t help Americans save money on groceries or prescription medicine, or find a good job, and is just something Trump was doing “because it will get him attention and make him sound like a tough guy.”
Still, Schumer said he’d be on board if his “one condition” was met. “Let’s come up with a real plan first — not a concept of a plan — to lower prices for Americans,” he concluded. “Let’s do that first. Then, Donald Trump can have his fun.”
Watch the video above, via CSPAN.
