The new United States Executive has announced the official name change of the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali (Alaska), which will henceforth be called the Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, respectively, according to a statement from the Department of the Interior.
“Pursuant to President Donald J. Trump’s recent executive order, the Department of the Interior is proud to announce the implementation of name restorations that honor the legacy of American greatness, efforts that are already underway,” the note begins, which explains that “these changes reaffirm the nation’s commitment to preserving America’s extraordinary heritage and ensuring that future generations of Americans celebrate the legacy of their heroes and historic assets.”
This change will become definitively effective when the country’s Geographic Names Board updates the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System, “with immediate effect for federal use” from that moment on, according to the Interior.
Regarding the Gulf of America, Washington has highlighted its “lasting contributions” to “the economic vitality of the United States”, underlining that Trump’s decision to formally change its name has only “reaffirmed its central importance to the nation.”
For its part, Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, has become with this change of identity “a monument to the strength and determination of President William McKinley” – the 25th president of the United States -, who “heroically led the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War, promoting an era of rapid economic growth and territorial gains for the nation.”
The Trump team has presented this particular tribute to McKinley as a “significant recognition” of his “enduring legacy,” after “President (Barak) Obama’s administration removed the name McKinley from federal nomenclature” in 2015, according to with the same writing.
“The Department of the Interior remains committed to respecting all aspects of President Trump’s executive order, ensuring that the names we use reflect the values, sacrifices and achievements that define our nation,” the Department of the Interior concluded.
This announcement comes after the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, rejected in early January – before the new Trump Administration took power – the US president’s proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico to call it the Gulf of America and suggested in ironic tone that the United States should then be called “Mexican America”, appealing to a text from the early 19th century.
Trump orders to suspend funding for elective abortions
On the other hand, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order by which the Administration suspends federal funds intended to finance or promote elective abortions, that is, those performed voluntarily.
“For nearly five decades, Congress has annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a long-standing consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for the practice,” the order reads, clarifying that “the previous administration ignored this policy.”
Thus, the Republican has signed a measure, which dates back to 1977, to prohibit the use of federal money for voluntary termination of pregnancy care. He has alleged that former President Joe Biden (2021-2024) has not respected him.
Trump has defended on several occasions that he would veto the federal amendment that repeals the abortion ban on the basis that it is up to the states to decide on this issue “based on the will of their voters.”
The White House has indicated in the recent executive order that the director of the Office of Management and Budget will issue guidelines to those responsible for executive departments and agencies to carry out what is established in the new measure.
Abortion was a complex issue for Trump during his 2024 campaign, as he tried to maintain the support of the religious conservatives who propelled him to the presidency, while trying to appeal to moderate and suburban women upset by the wave of restrictions that followed. the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, according to the Bloomberg agency.
The White House announced the measure on Friday, coinciding with the annual March for Life event on the National Mall in Washington, a key gathering of abortion rights advocates. In fact, 23 anti-abortion activists convicted of blocking the entrance to clinics to terminate pregnancy were pardoned.
Pentagon candidacy
Furthermore, the candidate for the United States Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has finally been confirmed for the position by the Senate, after two senators from the Republican Party rejected his candidacy, questioning among other things his lack of political experience and their rejection of the female presence in combat operations of the Armed Forces.
“Congratulations to Pete Hegseth. He will be a great Secretary of Defense!” said US President Donald Trump on his social network, Truth Social, just a few minutes after knowing the result of the vote, which went ahead thanks to to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President, JD Vance.
The appointment Hegseth, a FOX News anchor and Armed Forces veteran, has been surrounded by controversy from the beginning. Not only does an accusation of sexual assault against a woman in 2017 weigh on him, but he has also openly questioned whether women can participate in combat operations or that LGTBI soldiers openly show their sexual orientation, going so far as to label the progress made in this matter within the US Armed Forces.
However, the now leader of the Pentagon, known for his time on the aforementioned American network, has insisted at all times that these accusations are part of a “coordinated defamation campaign” by the media.
Foreign aid funds are frozen except for Israel and Egypt
On the other hand, the United States Department of State announced this Friday the freezing of foreign aid funds for 90 days, with the exception of Israel and Egypt, according to an internal memo sent to American officials and embassies abroad and collected by American media.
The order, sent by the Secretary of this Department, Marco Rubio, allegedly affects everything from development assistance to foreign military aid to all countries except Israel and Egypt. That is, Ukraine, among others, would be excluded, a country that received billions of dollars in military aid during the Joe Biden Government (2021-2024).
The measure implies the suspension with immediate effect of assistance abroad. “Decisions on whether to continue, modify or terminate the programs will be made after this review,” the report states, as reported by the US network CNN.
A US official quoted by the same network has assured that although they expected there would be cuts in assistance, they did not expect such an immediate stoppage.
On his first day in office as president, Trump issued an executive order halting U.S. foreign development assistance for 90 days to evaluate “programmatic efficiency and consistency with U.S. foreign policy.”
Trump stated that “the US foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases are antithetical to American values.”