The APs provides a hint
A post a couple of weeks ago suggested Donald Trump’s fascination with Greenland stemmed from his not understanding how maps work. Specifically, the Mercator projection that distorts Greenland to make it look larger than it is. I mocked up the image above while imagining Trump wanting to slap his name on the island in letters large enough to be seen from space.
A post from The Bulwark this morning has me thinking he might want more than a massive logo.
Trump this week signed executive orders renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and changing Alaska’s Denali back to Mt. McKinley. Noting that other countries are not obliged to follow Trump’s dicta and its own global audience, The Associated Press has updated its widely used style guide (I have one here) to version Trump 2.0:
The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.
As for Denali:
Trump also signed an executive order to revert the name of North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, to Mount McKinley. Former President Barack Obama changed the official name to Denali in 2015 to reflect the traditions of Alaska Natives as well as the preference of many Alaska residents. Trump said in his executive order that he wanted to “restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley.”
The Associated Press will use the official name change to Mount McKinley. The area lies solely in the United States and as president, Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.
Trump will undo everything Biden and Obama ever did, if he can. He’s just starting with checklist items he can manage with the stroke of a sharpie.
The Bulwark asks, “If Trump signed an order changing the name of Mt. Rushmore to Mt. Trump, would the AP follow along? It’s important in the Gulf of Mexico example that ‘all audiences’ be able to identify places with their names, but that doesn’t count if the places are ‘within the country’?”
Why would the size-obsessed Fauntleroy stop at Rushmore? Greenland is bigger … much bigger. If Trump somehow managed to “acquire” Greenland, why stop at just slapping a Trump brand on it large enough to be visible from the moon but not from the ground?
Isle of Trump? Trump Island? Trumpland?