The White House has responded after musician John Mellencamp criticised President Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” during recent concerts. The exchange highlights continuing political and cultural disagreement over the federal name change, which applies to US government usage but is not universally accepted.

At a New Jersey performance, Mellencamp interrupted “Pink Houses” to question the new name and dismiss it in profane terms; he repeated the criticism at a New York show. White House spokesman Davis Ingle replied that people did not care what “out-of-touch, woke Hollywood celebrities” said, while Mellencamp is an Indiana-based singer-songwriter rather than a Hollywood figure. Trump ordered the renaming shortly after returning to office in January 2025.