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President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to announce that the United States will begin referring to the Persian Gulf as the “Arabian Gulf” or “Gulf of Arabia” in a snub to Iran.
Two administration officials have told the Associated Press that Trump will visit the region next week, touring Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. He is set to make the announcement as a friendly overture to his hosts.
The body of water, lying between eastern Saudi Arabia and the southwestern coast of Iran, has been widely known by its current name since the 16th century. However, the region’s Arab nations have preferred a designation closer to Trump’s.
Tehran has been protective of the sea’s historic name, however, and sued Google Maps in 2012 over its decision not to label it at all.
Trump waded into the issue early in his first term in 2017 when he alluded to the area as the Gulf of Arabia, causing Iran’s then-president Hassan Rouhani to suggest the American needed to “study geography angrily.”
His foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, likewise wrote in a social media post: “Everyone knew Trump’s friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. We now know that his geography is, too.”
Trump’s latest move will change how American officials refer to the area, but has no bearing on what the rest of the world calls the waterway, which is typically decided by the International Hydrographic Organization, a body to which the U.S. belongs.
It follows the president’s controversial executive order renaming a number of domestic landmarks, notably reverting Mount Denali in Alaska to its old name of Mount McKinley, preferring to ditch the native name for the peak in favor of honoring President William McKinley, an Ohioan who never once visited the state.
Trump’s decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” provoked ridicule from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The White House excluded the AP from its press pool after it refused to use the new name, leading to a court case in which the agency overturned the ruling and won the right to continue covering the West Wing at close quarters.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have since returned the U.S. Army base Fort Liberty to its old name, Fort Bragg. However, this time it alludes to Second World War paratrooper Roland L Bragg, not the Confederate general Braxton Bragg, as was the original intention.
The president’s upcoming visit to the Middle East comes as he attempts to drum up Saudi investment in the U.S., resolve the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and rein in Iran’s nuclear program.
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