Donald Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ gambit could cost the American taxpayer, and you’ll never believe how much

Donald Trump is working overtime to overwhelm and exhaust the American public with his ever-changing agenda.

Over his first three weeks in office, Trump made it his goal to enact endless new policies. By inundating the news with ceaseless updates and alterations, he’s kept the American public panicked and confused, which has allowed his less egregious aims to slip past unnoticed. While we’re all fixating on the budding trade war, the attack on our judicial branch, and stressing over Elon Musk’s clear overreach, one of Trump’s more innocuous moves could be costing the country tens of thousands.

Term two Trump has entered his full-blown conqueror era, and he’s aiming that Genghis Khan energy at a range of U.S. allies, from Greenland to Canada. He even decided it was worth taking the time — and apparently money — to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, and all for some absurd vanity project. The area is now officially called the Gulf of America on state-side Google Maps, but it turns out the process may be much more painful than a simple digital switch.

The administrative fees to change something as commonly referenced as the Gulf of Mexico America can climb rapidly, and one online spreadsheet connoisseur predicts it could cost taxpayers top dollar to see Trump’s little tantrum come to fruition. Sure, Google Maps can just switch things over on a whim, but the government has an exhaustive list of systems, records, and filings that will also need to be changed, and that takes time — and, as it turns out, money.

According to one astute American, the administrative costs of Trump’s decision will be yet another burden on taxpayer shoulders. “These names go through a million systems a day – and they all have to be updated,” they informed the Reddit masses. “Existing legislation that references the Gulf of “Mexico”? Pay for those updates. GIS databases and tracking? Pay for those updates. Administrative approvals and rubber stamp processing? Pay for those updates.”

According to their estimation — which, to be fair, is extremely challenging to verify — “every time there’s a name change to a major geographical feature – at the federal level – …it probably costs tax payers $100k+.”

An estimate that’s upwards of $100,000 is no small sum, and for a man who swore his presidency would cut the deficit and save taxpayer money, it’s an infuriating move. There was absolutely no need — and no demand — to change the Gulf of Mexico’s name, but Trump wanted a vanity project. So he went ahead and bulldozed his way through, regardless of the consequences.

He also went ahead and made Feb. 9 an official holiday, dubbing it “Gulf of America Day” in an official White House memo. So it’s a waste of government resources to recognize holidays like Martin Luther King Jr. day, Black History Month, and Pride Month, but we can celebrate an utterly inane holiday that benefits no one? Checks out.

An investigation into the administrative fees that may accompany a name change like the Gulf of Mexico’s didn’t reveal any hard numbers, but it did make it clear that it’s far more expensive than many people realize. There’s always a cost to changing something at the federal level, but it’s not clear if it would actually reach the more than $100,000 cited by our Reddit commenter. What is clear, however, is that there will be a cost to the American public, and Trump will never admit he’s to blame for that.