Authoritarian regimes control language as a way to control thought. And let’s face it, the United States is well on its way to becoming an authoritarian regime. Congress is asleep. It’s not clear how much the courts can do in the long run. Trump has made it clear that he can rename things at a whim and punish those who don’t use the names he chooses.

He issued a decree that the Gulf of Mexico shall henceforth be called the Gulf of America. The USGS updated its data accordingly, and the change quickly flowed into Google Maps, DuckDuckGo, and other online information sources. More significantly, Trump has banished Associated Press from the Oval Office for not falling into line. AP has said, “As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” so it continues to use “Gulf of Mexico” as the primary name.

A rather poor Reason article dismisses this action by saying “A dust-up over geographical nomenclature is silly” and calling the issue “a childish squabble” (which implies both sides are being childish), though it admits the event “signals the Trump administration’s hostility to the First Amendment and freedom of the press.”

A statement by FIRE is more to the point: “Punishing journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology is an alarming attack on press freedom. That’s viewpoint discrimination, and it’s unconstitutional.”

It’s a test, an attempt to break the news agencies to Trump’s will. If they don’t use his preferred nouns, they won’t get access to information. It isn’t “silly” or “childish” to recognize that his move further confirms his dangerous lust for power.