Donald Trump has demanded that New Mexico be renamed “New America” in a Truth Social post that drew swift backlash from the state’s Democratic leadership.
Trump, 78, took to his Truth Social platform to declare, “New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America.”
He added: “we are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!”
The president insisted that if the name were changed, “home values and incomes would rise” and so would patriotism. He then tied the rebrand to his unsubstantiated claims of electoral misconduct, writing, “Maybe even the Crooked Elections, that New Mexico is known for, would become honest again!”
Trump lost New Mexico in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. The outlet has found no evidence of voter fraud in those contests.
New Mexico’s Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham fired back at Trump’s rebranding demands, saying: “New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate – it’s been ours since before the United States existed.”
She continued, framing the post as a distraction tactic: “While the White House wastes time coloring on maps, Nuevo México is busy doing the work.”
Lujan Grisham’s reference to coloring on maps appeared to allude to Trump’s recent social media activity around the issue. Last month, he shared an AI-manipulated image showing New Mexico on a map with “Mexico” crossed out in red and “America” written in its place. Several hours after his latest Truth Social post, he followed up with an AI-generated video depicting himself replacing “America” over a “Welcome to New Mexico” sign.
The president does not possess executive power to rename US states, including New Mexico.
Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan wrote on social media: “It’s New Mexico, always has been and always will be.”
He added, escalating the rhetoric: “Just like how you’ll always be a sinvergüenza and corrupt,” using the Spanish term for a “shameless person.”
Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury shared her own blunt rejection, writing: “Oh hell no! Our state’s name carries generations of history, culture, and family – and it belongs to us. We’re New Mexicans. Period.”
Trump’s New Mexico demand fits a broader pattern of territorial rebranding efforts he has pursued since returning to office. In August, he signed an Executive Order changing Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America while taking a shot at the neighboring ally.
At the Oval Office signing, he told reporters he had been considering the change “for a long time,” then complained: “We defend Canada for nothing, we don’t get anything. We love the people of Canada, but their representatives aren’t doing an appropriate job.”
He has already successfully rebranded the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America through executive action, and he joked to reporters that larger bodies of water could follow.
“Actually, as you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico and we changed it, and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,” he said. “So, if you think about it, 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.”
The timing of Trump’s New Mexico post, coming roughly two weeks before the midterm elections, has intensified political scrutiny of his messaging as Democrats seek to frame it as erratic governance.
Trump’s latest salvo against a state he has repeatedly failed to carry electorally underscores how geographic renaming has become a recurring theme of his domestic agenda, even as legal and constitutional barriers prevent unilateral presidential action on state names.
The White House has not announced any formal executive action regarding New Mexico’s name.