Trump’s cellphone company included the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ on its coverage map

U.S. President Donald Trump refuses to accept anyone calling the Gulf of Mexico by its traditional name. In his efforts to erase history, Trump signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The Associated Press was banned from the Oval Office and the White House for sticking to the original name, a kind of warning shot that fits with Trump’s increasingly authoritarian style. But now it’s been his own mobile phone services company that has called the Gulf of Mexico by its actual name.

Trump Mobile was launched on Monday at Trump Tower in New York, exactly on the day marking 10 years since Trump descended his golden escalator to announce his jump into politics. Two of Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric, took part in the event.

Trump Mobile introduced two things: a “made in the USA” cellphone that no one really believes will be made in the U.S., and a virtual mobile operator — that is, a cellphone company that uses other companies’ networks to provide service.

The company announced its so-called Plan 47, priced at $47.45 per month. Trump is both the 45th and 47th president of the United States. According to the Trump Organization, the plan will offer unlimited calls, texts, and data; 24/7 roadside assistance through Drive America; telemedicine services including virtual healthcare, mental health support, and easy prescription ordering and delivery; plus free international calls to over 100 countries. Certain aspects of the offer are still unclear and include fine print.

Trump Mobile boasted that, thanks to agreements with the three giants of the U.S. telecom sector (Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile), it would have maximum coverage across the country — and also provide service in Mexico and Canada.

To demonstrate this, the company’s website published its coverage map. It showed in green the areas covered by the networks’ antennas it uses, and in white, the generally sparsely populated zones that were not covered. Since the coverage also extended into broad parts of Mexico, the U.S. neighbor to the south also appeared on the map. And there, right where it should be, was the Gulf of Mexico — not the Gulf of America.

That implicit acknowledgment of the Gulf’s real name on a new map sparked ridicule on social media. The company decided to cut its losses. Without even attempting a correction, it simply deleted the page from its website — as if it had never existed. Clicking on trumpmobile.com/coverage brings up an error message, at least from Monday night through Tuesday afternoon. It’s the classic 404 error: “Not Found,” with a warning message: “Oops! The page you’re looking for doesn’t exist.” What still does exist, whether Trump likes it or not, is the Gulf of Mexico.

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