Photo: Alamy
The White House banned an Associated Press reporter from a press briefing in the Oval Office on Tuesday after the organization refused to change its style guide to acknowledge the Gulf of America.
The controversy comes just days after President Donald Trump signed a document on Sunday, Feb. 9, as a day to commemorate the Gulf of America after changing the name by executive order on his first day in office last month.
“Today 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,” AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said in a statement.
“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 added.
The AP previously released an update on Jan. 23 concerning its decision not to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
“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,” the update determined.
Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America through an executive order on his first day in office on Jan. 20.
“The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America,” the order stated.
Trump’s order also returned the name Mount McKinley to the famous mountain in Alaska. Former President Barack Obama previously renamed it Denali.
“President William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, heroically led our Nation to victory in the Spanish-American War. Under his leadership, the United States enjoyed rapid economic growth and prosperity, including an expansion of territorial gains for the Nation,” Trump wrote.
