Since Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday 20 January, the 47th US president has taken many bold decisions such as an order to ‘rename’ the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Now, his tech ally, Elon Musk, proposes The English Channel should be renamed ‘The George Washington Channel’ and many are reacting to this controversial suggestion with strong replies.
Many changes have already taken place
Since his inauguration, the returning US president has conducted many bold statements like ordering the declassification of confidential documents about the assassination of three prominent US figures, and deciding to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
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Trump and Musk are friends
During his inauguration speech, Trump had also promised to take America to Mars with the help of his tech giant ally Elon Musk.
Trump also signed legislation for NASA to plan a mission to Mars which would launch in 2033.
Musk followed in Trump’s footsteps
After the 47th president renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, Elon followed in his footsteps by suggesting the renaming of the English Channel to ‘The George Washington Channel’.
The owner of Tesla, SpaceX and the social media app X (formerly known as Twitter) took to the app to post about this.
Musk posted on X
Musk posted on his social media app an image of The English Channel from the map with the words ‘The George Washington Channel’ written on it.
In the post, he also wrote the caption, “New name for the water that separates England and France.”
The channel already has different names
The channel which Musk refers to has different names in both England and France, with the name ‘The English Channel’ being the popular one in the former, and ‘La Manche’ in the latter.
So this water channel already has more than one name, which many pointed out.
Users responded to his post
A lot of people were upset with the suggestion to rename the channel. One person questioned, “What’s with this obsession now to change the names of geographical landmarks?”
It’s certainly possible that Musk was just making a joke, instead of a serious suggestion. Another user mocked, “How about ‘The Viking Canal?'”
One user pointed out it won’t be official
“It’s ridiculous. Why would we spend millions of dollars to change signage and documents? The US doesn’t have the authority to rename international bodies of water. We can call them what we want in our official documents, but that’s not an official name change,” another user wrote.
Many found it politically insensitive
It’s unclear whether Musk was making an actual suggestion or was just making a joke as he didn’t explain the thought process behind his suggestion. Many dismissed the suggestion as a joke.
However, others found his post to be insensitive and centering the channel that concerns England and France around America.
