Google faces lawsuit as Mexico fights Trump-backed switch to “Gulf of America”

Mexico has filed suit against Google for showing “Gulf of America” on US Google Maps, ignoring repeated requests to retain the historic name Gulf of Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday. The legal action—filed after letters in January and February went unanswered—argues that Washington’s January executive order can only apply to the US continental shelf, not the entire waterway shared with Cuba and Mexico. Google says map labels follow official US government sources and remain unchanged for Mexican users, but it declined comment on the lawsuit.

The row escalates a broader geopolitical spat: on Thursday the Republican-controlled House voted to require all federal agencies to adopt the new name, and Donald Trump issued an order cementing the switch. Sheinbaum calls the move “an affront to Mexico’s sovereignty,” while insisting the US lacks authority to rename an international body of water. For users outside the States, Maps now displays “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America),” a compromise Mexico deems unacceptable.

The dispute echoes tensions in the Middle East, where Trump is expected to dub the Persian Gulf the “Arabian Gulf” during a forthcoming Saudi trip, already drawing Iranian ire. News agencies, led by the Associated Press, refuse to adopt the American wording—a stance that briefly saw the White House restrict AP access until a federal judge intervened. Diplomats warn that politically driven name changes risk derailing cooperation on trade, energy and maritime security across multiple regions.