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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has suggested that Washington's District of Columbia. could be renamed "District of America."
Newsweek contacted representatives for Boebert by email outside of normal business hours for comment.
Why It Matters
Speaking during a Congressional legislative hearing on Tuesday, the Colorado Republican indicated the nation's capital could go through a similar name change to that of the Gulf of America, known until very recently in the U.S. as the Gulf of Mexico.
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What To Know
Boebert's remarks came after President Donald Trump changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America via an executive order during his first days in office. The move, which was criticized by Mexican officials, directed officials to update federal maps and caused many companies to follow suit.
The president also reversed the name of Alaska's Denali, the highest peak in the U.S., back to Mount McKinley. It was changed under the Barack Obama administration.
Meanwhile last week, an audio recording circulated on social media claiming to show Trump advocating changing the name of D.C. However, the viral clip was debunked by fact-checkers and revealed to have been created with artificial intelligence.
Boebert has previously backed Trump's "drill baby drill" agenda and advocated placing the president's portrait on $100 bills.
Earlier on in Tuesday's hearing, Representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, brought up the issue of renaming the Gulf, referencing late-night TV host Stephen Colbert, who made the proposal as a joke following the catastrophic BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, according to The Independent.
"I would caution my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to refrain from making jokes about the Gulf of America because next up may be the District of America that we are working on," Boebert, a Trump ally, said during a Tuesday hearing for the House Natural Resources Committee in which Trump's Gulf of America Act was discussed.
"So just, you know, keep the jokes at bay, and maybe we'll just stick with the Gulf of America for now," she added.
What People Are Saying
Billy Binion, a reporter for Reason wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Someone please tell Lauren Boebert that the District of Columbia is not named after Colombia. It is named after Christopher Columbus. We are living in Veep."
What Happens Next
Trump has not indicated he intends to rename D.C. or any other locations in the U.S.
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