New Mexico leaders reject Trump's push to rename state New America

President Donald Trump called on New Mexico to change its name to New America in a Truth Social post on Oct. 19, a change the president has no authority to make and that would require amending the state's constitution.

New Mexico's name is written into Article I of its constitution. Trump's post calls for the state to change its name but does not lay out a formal process for doing so, Fox News reported.

What Trump can do on his own is narrower. He can rename geographic features listed in the Geographic Names Information System, CNN reported, and he could direct federal agencies to refer to New Mexico by another name, according to The Washington Post. Neither step would change the state's legal name.

What the post claimed

Trump wrote that the name would add great value and prestige to the state and that home values and incomes would rise. Residents would be even prouder saluting the American flag, he wrote. He ended the post with an attack on New Mexico's elections, writing that "Maybe even the Crooked Elections, that New Mexico is known for, would become honest again!"

He posted shortly before leaving the White House for a midterm rally in Kansas, CNN reported. Fox News reported that he was traveling to Kansas to campaign for Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican.

The idea surfaced first on Sept. 6, when Trump posted a map of the state with "Mexico" crossed out in red and "America" written in its place. The White House amplified the post on its official X account, Fox News reported. He described New America then as a more prestigious name for the landlocked Southwestern state, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Trump pitched the change again at the RNC Midterm Convention on Sept. 9. "You have a neighboring state, New Mexico. We think it should be called New America," he said, adding that the people love the idea and that he was sure the radical left did not like it.

New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America. We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!

Trump offered no evidence in the post for the election allegation and did not explain how a name change would raise property values and incomes, Fox News reported.

Rejections from both parties

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, rejected the idea when Trump first raised it in September, telling Fox News Digital that the state's name is not up for debate and has been New Mexico's since before the United States existed. She accused the White House of focusing on a distraction while her administration worked on child care, education, health care and housing.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján said the state is keeping its name, telling Trump that long after he is out of office New Mexico will still be New Mexico, The Hill reported. Luján also said the name carries generations of history and tradition, according to CNN.

While the White House wastes time coloring on maps, Nuevo México is busy doing the work

Republicans in New Mexico have kept their distance. Greg Cunningham, who is challenging Rep. Gabe Vasquez in the state's 2nd Congressional District, said at a debate on Oct. 16 that the change is not legislatively possible and that nothing would change, The Washington Post reported. Gregg Hull, the Republican nominee for governor, said in September that New Mexico "does not need a new name" and that its identity "is not up for negotiation," the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Deb Haaland, the Democratic candidate for governor and a former interior secretary under President Biden, told Trump on social media that he should focus on ending the war, stopping tariffs and making things less expensive rather than renaming the state, The Hill reported.

Spanish explorers used the term Nuevo México for the future territory before Mexico existed as an independent nation, the Washington Times reported, which described the push as drawing a contrast between the two neighboring countries. A Bureau of Indian Affairs fact sheet traces the name to the 16th century, before the founding of the United States, according to CNN.

The renaming record so far

Trump's earlier name changes ran through executive orders. He signed Executive Order 14172, "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness," on Jan. 20, 2025, directing federal agencies to adopt Gulf of America for the Gulf of Mexico and to restore Mount McKinley as the federal name of Denali. The peak had carried the federal name Mount McKinley from 1917 until 2015, when the Obama administration restored Denali.

Lake Ontario came in August 2026, when Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use Lake America, during his trade fight with Canada. He appeared in the Oval Office on Aug. 27, 2026, next to a map labeled "Lake America" and alongside Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, according to Fox News.

Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca called on Trump to rescind that order, saying the renaming violated the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, which set the Seneca Nation's boundaries beginning at Lake Ontario, The Hill reported. Canadians objected on other grounds, the Washington Times reported: the province of Ontario takes its name from the lake, which comes from an old Native American word roughly translated as beautiful lake.

Oceans and a strait

Trump has floated renaming an ocean bordering the continental United States "Trump Ocean" or "Ocean of the Americas." He raised the idea at a rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, on Oct. 10, and at a rally in Dalton, Georgia, on Oct. 16 he said he had jokingly asked Google about renaming an ocean. He has also repeatedly suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz the Trump Strait, CNN reported.

What a change would require

A change would mean amending the state constitution, which takes a vote of the legislature and then of New Mexico's voters. The Washington Post reported that Congress would probably have to act as well.

New Mexico is a blue state that Trump lost by 6 points in 2024, and its entire congressional delegation is Democratic, CNN reported. The state has voted Democratic in eight of the last nine presidential elections and has never backed Trump. Democrats hold every statewide office and both chambers of the state legislature, according to The New Republic.

Republicans are anxious about holding their congressional majorities in the November midterms, CNN reported, with voters telling pollsters that the president is not paying enough attention to the country's most pressing problems.

No change announced

Trump's post did not say whether he would direct federal agencies to use New America for the state, as he has done for the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario. The proposal remains a political demand, with no name change announced.

On Oct. 3, Trump took a softer line in a video endorsing Cunningham. He opened by greeting New America, formerly known as New Mexico, then told residents the decision was up to them, calling it a beautiful change that he was not going to push. He added that a lot of people were liking the idea, Mediaite reported.