Rep. Lauren Boebert has suggested that the Trump administration is working on a plan to rename Washington, D.C. to the “District of America.”
“I would caution my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to refrain from making fun of the ‘Gulf of America’ because next up, you know it may end up being the ‘District of America’ that we’re working on,” Boebert said during a Water, Fisheries, and Wildlife Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday. She was responding to jokes from opposition lawmakers.
“So just, you know, keep the jokes at bay, and maybe we’ll just stick with the Gulf of America for now,” she added.
The idea to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” started when President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office, calling for the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
Before Boebert’s comments, Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California, mentioned the controversy over renaming the Gulf. He reminded everyone that Stephen Colbert made the “Gulf of America” suggestion as a joke in 2010, after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This disaster, which caused massive environmental damage and killed 11 people, lasted for months and hurt the local economy.
“Colbert used the name change as a gimmick to raise awareness of the disaster,” Huffman explained. “It dragged on for five months – something our Republican friends seem to have forgotten about as they advance to a dirty drilling agenda.”
Boebert, a strong supporter of Trump, has been pushing for policies that align with the president’s “Drill Baby Drill” agenda. She has expressed support for increasing energy production in the U.S., including fossil fuels and renewable energy.
At the meeting, Huffman criticized the Trump administration’s approach to government and the environment, calling it a “chaotic government takeover.” He also spoke against the renaming of the Gulf, pointing out that what started as a joke was now becoming a part of a serious political agenda.
Huffman also criticized recent federal cuts to environmental staff, including the loss of almost half of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees, particularly biologists and scientists. These cuts, he argued, threaten the future of wildlife conservation in America.
“These firings, which disproportionately target biologists and natural resource professionals, are a direct attack on science-based conservation and the future of America’s wildlife,” the National Wildlife Refuge System wrote.
