Donald Trump's effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" is not simply a presidential whim or a matter of geographic nomenclature. It is a manifestation of a new form of colonization, where power is no longer only imposed through territorial occupation or military force, but through discursive construction and the manipulation of language. Rewriting history, the defenders of post-truth would say.

The first proof of this is that the Gulf of Mexico has a history that goes back centuries before the arrival of Europeans. This body of water was crucial for trade, fishing, and navigation for Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Maya and Totonac. No indigenous name is known to cover its entire length, but its presence in the codices and archaeological records shows that its importance was recognized long before the Spaniards named it.

During the European exploration of the 16th century, the Gulf of Mexico was key to the expeditions of conquest and colonization. Hernán Cortés sailed there in 1519 on his way to conquer Tenochtitlán, and the Gulf's coasts became strategic points for trade and the expansion of the Spanish Empire. Maps of the time called it the "North Sea", in contrast to the Caribbean Sea, but over time it became known as the "Gulf of Mexico", about the capital of New Spain.

With Mexico's independence in 1821, the name remained in international cartographic records, becoming a symbol of Mexican geography and identity. The Gulf of Mexico responds to a tradition that has been built over centuries. Likewise, the Gulf has been the scene of maritime disputes, oil exploration and diplomatic conflicts, but its name has never been seriously questioned until now. To attempt to modify this name is to ignore centuries of history that support it and seek to entrench it in the collective memory. I reiterate, this is pure post-truth.

And this is not an isolated event. In a recently signed decree, the former president justified the name change as an act of "reaffirmation of U.S. sovereignty over the waters that bathe its territory". He stated that "the Gulf of America better reflects our nation's contribution to the development and security of the region". This decision generated immediate responses from Mexico and other Latin American countries, who described the act as a symbolic gesture of territorial appropriation.

Beyond the executive order, Trump has reiterated in interviews and speeches that "the United States is the dominant power in the hemisphere and we must name our borders accordingly." He has urged U.S. companies to adopt the new term in their communications and praised those that have already implemented it. However, international organizations and the geographic community have rejected this change, stressing that the naming of international bodies of water cannot be altered unilaterally.

Historically, colonization has been based on the imposition of names to mark authority over a territory. From Christopher Columbus christening Caribbean islands with European names to the British renaming entire cities in India, the act of naming has been a tool of domination. What we see with Trump is a contemporary version of this phenomenon: he does not change the map by way of war, but by decree, with the intention of imposing a worldview where the U.S. redefines geography at its convenience.

Trump understood that the world no longer works as it used to, because, as Marshal McLuhan would say, it is now one big global village. Digital disruption is a fact that has profoundly altered human beings' perception of the world. For centuries, power was about who had the ability to impose their version of reality through force and geographic conquest. However, in the age of digital and hyperconnectivity, power no longer lies solely in territorial control or official discourses, but in the ability to dominate the narrative in real time before a given audience.

The past elections showed that in this, the current president has much more experience and effectiveness than his enemies. Today, more than ever, objective reality is less important than the narrative built around it. In a world where social networks, algorithms and artificial intelligence shape the collective perception, the dispute is no longer about the truth, but about which narrative manages to prevail.

Trump has proven to be a master at constructing narratives, from "Make America Great Again" to the idea of an alleged electoral fraud in 2020. By renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," he is not seeking a change in the official maps of the world, but to generate an alternative reality where perception (and not geography) plays in his favor. It is a move to consolidate a nationalist mentality, which reinforces its political base and its idea that the U.S. has the right to redefine the global order to suit itself.

The problem with this strategy is that we are no longer in the 19th century, where the powers could modify maps at will without much resistance. Today, resistance does not need armies or governments: an active and connected digital community is enough. Platforms such as X (Twitter), TikTok or Reddit are now spaces where the "truth" is disputed, and in them, the credibility of a narrative is decided in a matter of hours or days. So the strategy can become a boomerang that ends up hitting the one who launched it.