In the hours after Donald Trump declared he’d rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” one federal official remarked to some co-workers that things were about to get busy.
“Where’s that ‘it has begun’ meme from Lord of the Rings...?” an unidentified U.S. Geological Survey employee wrote on Jan. 7 to several government officials, including those at the State Department and Library of Congress.
“Yes, indeed,” replied Michael Tischler, director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Geospatial Program. “Lots of churn from Denali to the Gulf of Mexico.”