"The Associated Press continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America," White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said in a post on X.
"While their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One," Budowich said.
Instead of AP, he said, "that space will now be opened up to the many thousands of reporters who have been barred from covering these intimate areas of the administration."
AP reporters have been barred since Tuesday from attending President Donald Trump's events in the Oval Office over the agency's refusal to follow his executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
AP editor-in-chief Julie Pace has called the administration's stance a "plain violation" of AP's protected free speech rights and "an incredible disservice to the billions of people who rely on The Associated Press for nonpartisan news."
In a style note last month, AP noted that "the Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years" and said Trump's executive order "only carries authority within the United States."
In making the case for using Gulf of America, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that the US secretary of interior had officially designated the new name, and Google and Apple had made the change on their popular maps.
The White House Correspondents' Association has called AP's exclusion from Trump events "outrageous."
"The attempted government censorship of a free press risks a chilling effect on journalists doing their job without fear or favor on behalf of the American people," the group's president Eugene Daniels said in a statement.
"This is a textbook violation of not only the First Amendment, but the president's own executive order on freedom of speech and ending federal censorship."
Budowich, the White House official, said that while AP would be barred from the Oval Office and the Air Force One presidential plane, AP journalists and photographers will retain their credentials to the White House complex.
Google changes name of Gulf of Mexico to 'Gulf of America' for US users
San Francisco (AFP) Feb 11, 2025 -
Google on Monday changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America" for those using its Maps platform inside the United States, complying with an executive order by President Donald Trump.
The tech giant wrote in a blog post that users outside the United States will continue to see both the original and new name for the Gulf of Mexico, as is the case for other disputed locations.
"People using Maps in the U.S. will see 'Gulf of America,' and people in Mexico will see 'Gulf of Mexico.' Everyone else will see both names," Google wrote.
Google said the change aligns with its policy of following official US government geographic designations through the Geographic Names Information System.
Upon taking office, Trump signed executive orders not only changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico but also reverting the name of Denali, America's highest peak, to its former moniker Mt. McKinley.
In 2015, then-president Barack Obama officially recognized the Alaska mountain as Denali, the name used by Alaska Natives for centuries.
Trump's renamings sparked criticism from indigenous groups in Alaska, who have long advocated for maintaining the Denali name, and raised diplomatic concerns with Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has cheekily suggested calling the United States "Mexican America," pointing to a map from before one-third of her country was seized by the United States in 1848.
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