Trump post floats renaming New Mexico "New America"
Trump post floats renaming New Mexico "New America"
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Beckett, Staff Writer
October 8, 2026
On Sunday, September 6th, 2026, President Donald J Trump posted and reshared an image of New Mexico from the White House. The map shows the state with a red X crossing out the word Mexico while the word America sits underneath, suggesting the state would be renamed to ‘New America’.
According to CNN, the post was originally posted on Truth Social, then re-shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the White House.
Trump later posted on Truth Social Sunday evening, saying, “many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA.”
However, Donald Trump is not able to rename the state, as it would go against the state's constitution. New Mexico’s state constitution explicitly states "The name of this state is New Mexico" in Article I, Names and Boundaries.
Based on an article from Axios, Why Trump can't rename New Mexico as "New America", for the state to be renamed, the lawmakers of New Mexico must approve and propose an amendment of the constitution. After that, voters would need to vote on the amendment for it to be approved.
This idea of renaming the state has been met with criticism from citizens, however; as according to Reuters, citizens like Rob Martinez say, “New Mexico is a beautiful name, it's historic, it sounds beautiful, and New America does not.”
New Mexico’s Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham responded to the New Mexico post on X saying, ”New Mexico’s Name isn’t up for Debate.”
“While the President tries to distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran, gas prices keep soaring. Americans are also spending more at the grocery store, losing access to health care and wondering if they’ll ever be able to afford a home,” the governor added.
Michelle also stated, “While the White House wastes time coloring on maps, Nuevo México is busy doing the work,”
The Senator of New Mexico, Martin Heinrich, also posted on X, saying, “Three things I will always call by their actual names: The Gulf of Mexico. Lake Ontario. New Mexico.”
According to WorldAtlas, New Mexico's name came from Spanish explorers who named the area “Nueva México”. Mexico then kept the name after gaining freedom from Spain.
History.com explains that it was under the “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo" when the U.S. bought New Mexico for $15 million, and translated the name to English.
These New Mexico posts are the latest from the recent renaming proposals of geographical areas, proposed by the president.
The tweet was posted just days after Donald Trump signed an executive order to change Lake Ontario's name to "Lake America" on August 27th in order to “recognize the extraordinary contributions of the American people and the rich heritage of our history by naming great natural landmarks for our shared achievements” Based on his statement on WhiteHouse.gov.
In addition to this, the President also signed an executive order to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" back in January 2025.
President Trump was able to change both the names of these bodies of water because the U.S. Board on Geographic Names can change the names of bodies of water if the president signs executive order to rename them. According to an article from the U.S. News, Can He Do That? On Trump’s (Attempted) Renaming of Lake Ontario, the USGS/BGN states, “The BGN, USGS, and GNIS are not responsible for how this information is used, updated, released, or otherwise is managed by end users”, meaning they are not responsible for changing the name on places like Google Maps.
Both of those changes were also met with criticism from Mexico and Canada, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stating, "Canadian women and men also know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario - today and forever.”
Trump has talked about renaming one of the oceans, stating, “We have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both,” as stated by Fox News ( Trump floats renaming the Atlantic and Pacific oceans after rebranding historic lake).
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