The Trump administration’s attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico—and decision to kick the Associated Press out of the White House press corps for not updating its style guidelines accordingly—has been roundly rebuked by the Mexican government and free press outlets. On Monday, a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump declined to restore the AP’s access to White House press events.
A somewhat surprising organization has been more compliant: the Nature Conservancy, the country’s largest and wealthiest conservation nonprofit. In February, the group changed references to the Gulf of Mexico on its website to the Gulf of America. In the Gulf of America, the website now states, the group works on “restoring healthy shorelines, protecting the Gulf’s waters, and ensuring that diverse communities benefit from Gulf restoration.” On social media, environmentalists quickly criticized the group for capitulating to a White House that has targeted climate science, frozen climate funding, purged the Environmental Protection Agency, and pledged to tear up regulations while seizing enormous amounts of power for itself.
While controversial, the decision isn’t totally out of the blue for the Nature Conservancy. Shortly after Trump’s election, its CEO Jennifer Morris released a statement indicating the group’s intention to “work with the Trump administration on a range of issues.”
On Inauguration Day, January 20, TNC put out two press releases referencing federal policy. One said the group would “continue to honor the Paris Agreement goals and help the U.S. do its part.” The other stated that the group “remained committed to its values, including respect for people, cultures, communities and the world around us.” Neither statement criticized the Trump administration. Subsequent press releases haven’t either, and have all generally avoided discussion of White House policy decisions. Other large environmental nonprofits—including the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club—have repeatedly criticized the White House since Trump took office. As E&E News reported on Tuesday, other groups aren’t adopting Trump’s “Gulf of America” title, either. The Nature Conservancy did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
Kevin Weil, chief product officer at OpenAI, sits on the Nature Conservancy’s board and had allegedly planned to attend Trump’s inauguration but doesn’t appear to have shown up. OpenAI has fostered an especially close relationship with the administration. CEO Sam Altman joined Trump in the Oval Office to announce the $500 billion Stargate initiative to build AI infrastructure, including energy-intensive data centers. Late last month, the company also unveiled a new product called Chat GPT Gov, aimed at helping the U.S. government use AI to “boost efficiency and productivity.” The company is reportedly in talks with “several” unnamed federal agencies that want to use it.
The Nature Conservancy has faced criticism in the past for selling land to trustees and lending money to executives, ties to the timber industry, support for questionably “sustainable” industrial logging operations and sale of dubious carbon offset schemes.
Its “Gulf of America” decision comes as tech magnates—who’ve been important funders for climate and environmental nonprofits—cozy up to the new administration; some of the country’s biggest tech companies have been eager to get the government’s blessing in building out ever-larger fleets of energy-intensive data centers to power AI ventures, and court lucrative defense contracts. Google co-founder Sergey Brin gave $243 million to climate-related causes last year through his family foundation, plus another $22 million through Catalyst4 Inc., his nonprofit advocacy group. Having previously criticized Trump, Brin attended his inauguration last month. In 2021, TNC received a $100 million grant from Jeff Bezos’s $10 billion Earth Fund; in 2025, Bezos attended Trump’s inauguration, as well.
Looking out for their bottom lines, plenty of Silicon Valley CEOs—including those who once branded themselves climate champions—seem to have made peace with the Trump administration’s assault on everything from environmental regulations to clean energy subsidies and the Constitution. It’s not clear, though, what green groups like The Nature Conservancy might have to gain from doing the same.
