Chuck Schumer says Democrats would support renaming the Gulf of Mexico if Trump works with them to lower costs

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he’s fine with renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
• Only, though, if Trump works with them to lower costs for Americans, he said.
• Schumer said it “may be a zany new idea” but it won’t “help people save money at the grocery store.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday that Democrats were open to President-elect Donald Trump’s idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”

However, he noted that he’d only do so if Trump works with Democrats on “an actual plan to lower costs for Americans.”

“That is what the American people want us to focus on first, not on renaming bodies of water,” Schumer said in a floor speech, adding that his party’s priorities “are so much more closely aligned with the concerns of the American people than Donald Trump’s seem to be.”

Trump floated the idea at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, where he also refused to rule out the use of military force to take control of Greenland or the Panama Canal.

The Democratic leader’s comments essentially amount to a challenge to Trump to focus on the economic issues that helped him regain the presidency, rather than merely changing names.

Over the next several years, Democrats will be making the case that their economic agenda is more beneficial for the working class than Trump's.

"Renaming the Gulf of Mexico may be a zany new idea, but it isn't going to help people save money at the grocery store. It's not going to make trips to the pharmacy more affordable," Schumer said. "If Donald Trump wants to rename a gulf to sound more patriotic, I'd say we will help him on one condition and only one condition: let's come up with a real plan first — not a concept of a plan — to lower prices for Americans."

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