"Trump and the Redefinition of Geography".. Title of a Session Gathering Geographers in France

SadaNews - In the French city of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, where it was decided five centuries ago to name the New World "America", geography scholars gathered in recent days to look with astonishment and concern at the president of that distant continent, Donald Trump, as a case worth studying, an "astonishing" and "terrifying" phenomenon at the same time.

The name of the American president regularly echoes in the corridors of the International Geography Festival, which this year was dedicated to the topic of "power". In Trump's personality and policies, these experts find a living embodiment of the transformations of power in our age, and how one man can redraw maps, not with ink, but with words and sheer political will.

"The Master of Dystopia"

This concern turns into outright horror among other experts. Anne-Laure Amilhan Chari, a geography expert at Grenoble Alpes University, describes Trump as "mastering dystopia. He achieves everything we thought was purely fictional." She adds: "He has the audacity and power to bring about a radical upheaval in the realm of law and to prove that reality alone has become our reality."

The border expert clarifies that Trump is not alone in this approach, as "Putin does it with weapons, and the Chinese do it with their investments, but what makes Trump completely uninhibited is that he says it. And that's what's astonishing." For her, "borders are everywhere, they lie where power wants to draw them," which is clearly demonstrated in the operations carried out by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to implement the mass deportation program for immigrants.

"Redrawing the Map"

Frédéric Giraud, an expert in placename science at the University of Geneva, reveals that he received a flood of requests for clarification when Trump, upon his return to the White House, began changing the names of geographical locations through presidential decisions.

By his decree, Mount "Denali", the highest peak in the United States that derives its name from a local language in Alaska, was renamed "Mount McKinley" after a 19th-century president whom Trump admires. He also ordered the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, which derives its name from a language from the pre-colonial era, to become "Gulf of America", threatening sanctions against those who refuse to use the new name.

Giraud comments on this approach, stating: "This is terrifying, as it entails that dimension linked to the doctrine of white supremacy, which contradicts international commitments, especially sustainable development goals that promote the inclusion of minority languages and indigenous knowledge."

In another example, Giraud points out that Trump's talk of transforming the war-devastated Gaza Strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East" is essentially an attempt to replace a Canaanite name dating back thousands of years with a European name, in a process of cultural and historical erasure.

The End of the Era of Pluralism

Laurence Nardon, who studies the United States at the French Institute of International Relations, believes that what we are witnessing is more than just individual policies. She says: "What we are witnessing, which is astonishing, is the end of an era, the end of the era of pluralism" based on cooperation, international law, and institutions like the United Nations.

She adds that the scene "from a political science perspective is absolutely exciting", but she does not hide her deep concern, stating: "I have remained extremely optimistic about the resilience of the American system, but I personally see what is happening as terrible", pointing to the administration's attacks on universities, the rule of law, and the media.

Despite this bleak picture, there are still pockets of resistance. Frédéric Giraud clarifies that unlike technology giants such as "Google Maps" and "Apple Maps" that complied with Trump's orders, "there are collaborative platforms that are acting as a form of resistance, and they are being attacked as such". He mentions "Wikipedia of course, and in terms of maps, OpenStreetMap", indicating that the battle over naming and defining reality is still ongoing, even in the face of the world's most powerful men.

Source: AFP