Trump faces backlash over gulf renaming and press access row
President Donald Trump, shortly after his inauguration, ordered the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the American Gulf. This unilateral decision was not met with universal approval. Many media outlets, including the AP agency, have chosen not to adopt the new name in their publications. Trump, however, devised a method to penalize them for their noncompliance.
The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico was among Donald Trump's initial decisions. This move quickly faced opposition from other nations, which argued that it was a decision made without consultation with the countries located around this body of water.
The Gulf of Mexico is a transboundary entity, and altering its name would require the consent of all the bordering countries, including Mexico and Cuba. Nevertheless, Trump did not seek anyone’s approval.
Unsurprisingly, many media outlets, such as the American news agency AP, continue to avoid using the term "American Gulf." President Trump found a way to "penalize" them for this choice. He prohibited the agency's reporter from gaining entry to the Oval Office.
"We were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office. This afternoon AP's reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing," the agency stated in a release.
"It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism. Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment," the statement elaborated.
The mentioned "First Amendment" is one of the most critical amendments to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting restrictions on freedom of religion, press, speech, petition, and assembly.
Protest from the White House Correspondents' Association
The exclusion of an AP reporter from an Oval Office event elicited a protest from Eugene Daniels, the head of the White House Correspondents' Association.
"The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions. The move by the administration to bar a reporter from the Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable," Daniels asserted.
Daniels further stated that the Association "calls on the administration to immediately change course."
