Donald Trump’s decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico attracted a lot of media attention and widespread derision. But since the United States does not own that body of water, the executive order is kind of meaningless.
What is more significant is the decision made at the same time to restore the name of America’s tallest mountain to Mount McKinley.
The original name of the mountain was Denali, and it was known as such by the indigenous peoples of the Alaskan region for millennia until an American gold prospector came along in 1896 and decided to rename it Mount McKinley after the prospective 25th President of the United States, William McKinley.
Denali, viewed from the north. Photo in public domain
McKinley had never been to Alaska, and showed little interest in the area. In fact, that mid-Western native was notoriously sedentary, rarely leaving the Whitehouse during his 1900 re-election campaign. When he did venture out the following year to Buffalo, New York, he was gunned down by a waiting anarchist.
Nevertheless, the name stuck for more than a century until 2015 when President Obama announced that the mountain’s official name would revert to Denali.
Trump takes a childish delight in undoing the work of those he despises, so it was no surprise that he overturned that initiative. What is more telling, however, is what the name McKinley means to the 47th president, and the implications for the land Denali is located in.
McKinley is probably Trump’s favourite president, next to himself of course. For Trump, McKinley represents a golden age of rapid economic growth, protectionist trade tariffs and imperial expansion. And it is this so-called Gilded Age that Trump most likely has in mind in his quest to make America great again. It was also the time his grandparents, along with millions of others, emigrated to the United States from Europe.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s vision of America’s past glories has little to do with reality. It was a time when America was bitterly divided between the industrialised northeast and the impoverished south and west, labour unions clashed, often violently, with corporations, and wealth and power was concentrated in the hands of a few oligarchs. Unless you were part of the privileged elite, life was not much fun at the turn of the century. So, a few similarities with today.
It is the symbolic value of the McKinley name that is important, especially so when it is reimposed on an important indigenous landmark. It says that the history and traditions of the Alaskan peoples are irrelevant and that the territory is once again a new frontier, ripe for American exploitation.
At the same time as he restored McKinley’s name to Denali, Trump vowed to “unleash Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.” His January 20 executive order states:
The State of Alaska holds an abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber, and seafood. Unlocking this bounty of natural wealth will raise the prosperity of our citizens while helping to enhance our Nation’s economic and national security for generations to come.
For Trump, Alaska is just another real estate deal, much like Gaza, Greenland and Ukraine. The ultimate goal is to exploit all available resources and make huge profits for the American corporations who have signed up to his agenda. But most importantly, he needs to put his own personal moniker on the property he has just acquired.
Mount Trump is probably a step too far at this point but Mount McKinley is certainly an acceptable substitute.