Donald Trump wants Gulf of Mexico renamed to 'Gulf of America' as soon as he retakes White House

During a press conference from Palm Beach in Florida, US president-elect Donald Trump said renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America would be 'appropriate'

Donald Trump has vowed to change the 456-year-old name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" as soon as he retakes the White House.

During an hour-long, often rambling speech, the president-elect laid out his plans for his presidency, including refusing to rule out military action to take control of the Panama Canal. On changing geography, Trump said: "We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name."

He added: "And it's appropriate. It's appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country." The Gulf of Mexico, which borders the south-eastern coast of North America, is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Straits of Florida, which runs between Florida and Cuba, and to the Caribbean Sea by the Yucatán Channel, which runs between the Yucatán Peninsula and Cuba.

While he didn't explain how the renaming would happen, Trump quickly blamed Mexico for undocumented immigrations - and he went on to threaten tariffs on both Mexico and Canada. He said: "Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them.

"And we're going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada, because Canada, they come through Canada too, and the drugs that are coming through are at record numbers, record numbers. So we're going to make up for that by putting tariffs on Mexico and Canada, substantial tariffs."

Trump vowed to reverse many of Biden's policies, most of which would erode the work done to protect the climate. While delivering his speech for Mar-A-Lago, the president-elect again promised to undo President Joe Biden's action to permanently ban future offshore oil and gas development in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

"President Biden's actions on offshore drilling - banning offshore drilling - will not stand. I will reverse it immediately. It will be done immediately." He continued, "And we will drill, baby, drill. We're going to be drilling in a lot of other locations, and the energy costs are going to come way down."

Trump also repeated his criticism of Jimmy Carter's decision to hand control of the Panama Canal back over to Panama during his presidency, suggesting that the states had a bad end to that deal. "The Panama Canal is a disgrace," Trump said. "What took place at the Panama Canal? Jimmy Carter gave it to them for $1, and they were supposed to treat us well."

During his presidency, Carter, who died December 29 at age 100, negotiated treaties that provided for the handover of the crucial waterway, which had been built and controlled by the US, to Panama.

Trump has previously said he would seek to regain control of the canal, a suggestion that the government of Panama immediately dismissed. He has not explained how he would compel a friendly, sovereign nation to cede its own territory.

In an extraordinary moment, he refused to rule out using military force to reclaim the Panama Canal. His criticism of Carter came as the 39th president's body is scheduled to arrive in Washington to lie in state at the US Capitol.

Trump also slammed Biden's handling of crises in Afghanistan, Russia, and Syria. Of his first term, Trump said" "We had no wars. We defeated ISIS," he added. We had no wars. Now I'm going into a world that's burning with Russia and Ukraine and Israel."

His remarks come in spite of the ISIS-inspired truck attack that killed 14 people in New Orleans on New Year's Day. Trump repeated his claim that he would have withdrawn from Afghanistan "with dignity and strength, as opposed to looking like a bunch of fools with 13 dead and many, many, badly, horrifically injured."

Trump said Biden's mangled handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal inspired Russia to invade Ukraine. Trump also vowed if the hostages held by Hamas are not released by the time he gets into office, “all hell will break out in the Middle East.”