WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Incoming United States president Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” in his latest eye-catching plan as he prepares to take office later this month.

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,” he told reporters.

“It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”

The Republican billionaire had gathered reporters in southern Florida to announce a US$20 billion Emirati investment in US technology but his remarks quickly became a rally-style rant as he returned at length to many of his campaign themes.

“Since we won the election, the whole perception of the whole world is different. People from other countries have called me. They said, ‘Thank you, thank you,'” Trump said as he set out his agenda for the coming four years.

But the president-elect hammered President Joe Biden over the 2025 transition, claiming that the White House was “trying everything they can to make it more difficult.”

Trump, 78, has not acknowledged his 2020 defeat and refused to participate in the transfer of power to Biden.

Additionally on the international stage, the incoming president threatened the US’s southern neighbor with massive tariffs if it does not halt illegal entries across the border.

He also refused to rule out using the military to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal — both of which he has long coveted — repeating his criticism of the decision to allow local control of the Central American waterway by then-president Jimmy Carter, who died in December.