Mexico’s President rejected several of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s assertions about her country and even joked that the US should be called “Mexican America” after Trump said the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the Gulf of America.

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico used her Wednesday morning news conference to show a world map dating from 1607. The map labelled North America as Mexican America and already identified the Gulf of Mexico as such, 169 years before the US was founded.

“Why don’t we call it Mexican America? It sounds pretty, no?” Sheinbaum said while pointing to the map and smiling.

In response to Trump’s comment that Mexico was “essentially run by the cartels”, Sheinbaum told reporters that, “with all due respect”, Trump was ill-informed.

“In Mexico, the people rule,” she said. “And we are going to collaborate and understand each other with the government of President Trump, I am sure of it, defending our sovereignty as a free, independent and sovereign country.”

Sheinbaum also said that Mexico is willing to continue collaborating with the US on various issues, including immigration containment, security and drug trafficking. “But we are also very interested in stopping the entry of US firearms into Mexico,” she said.

New York Times News Service