The hosts of The View discussed President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” on Thursday, during which one host went to bat to defend the move.
Former aide to Trump during his first term, Alyssa Farah Griffin, told the hosts table Thursday, “I don’t actually hate renaming the Gulf of America,” since “it’s a more inclusive term.” The conversation at hand, however, had been whether Trump was reasonable to have barred Associated Press reporters from White House events as retaliation for not reflecting his name change order in their style guide.
Griffin still used the opportunity to defend the previously much-ridiculed change. She explained, “It is North America. Mexico and the United States are part of the Americas. It would be petty if he called it the Gulf of the United States by basically saying it’s our country’s, it’s not yours.”
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Fellow co-host Joy Behar asked, “But why does [Trump] care about [renaming] when the prices are going up on eggs?”
“People did not vote to rename the Gulf of Mexico,” Behar continued. “They voted because they kept complaining about prices and inflation. As far as I can see, inflation is on the rise.”
Sara Haines volunteered, “Arguably, in addition to the bird flu, he’s the reason it’s going up. He’d much rather focus on renaming.”
Griffin didn’t weigh in on that part of the conversation, save to mention that despite rising inflation, “people will talk about the Gulf of Mexico and the Kennedy Center” instead.
Griffin has been the table’s loudest voice with explanations for why Trump won the election over Kamala Harris, which she’s repeatedly attributed to Democratic messaging about the economy and immigration rather than the racial and cultural narratives Trump hinged his campaign on.
“These are the things Donald Trump does to trigger a reaction from the media so they cover this and pay more attention [to it],” Griffin said, which she suggests distracts the media from the “wholesale getting rid of government agencies” or the “confirming Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.”
