Trump suggests renaming New Mexico ‘New America’ as White House amplifies post and officials push back

President Donald Trump has suggested renaming New Mexico “New America” after sharing an altered map of the state on social media. The White House later amplified the image, while officials in New Mexico pushed back against the idea and defended the state’s existing name.

According to the New York Post, Trump’s post showed “Mexico” crossed out in the state’s name and replaced with “America.” He later wrote that people had suggested calling it “NEW AMERICA,” describing the proposed name as “prestigious and beautiful.” The White House reposted the image, but there has been no announcement of a formal effort to rename the state.

The suggestion comes after Trump’s administration pursued changes to federal geographic names. The administration has directed federal agencies to use “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico, while the earlier Lake Ontario proposal shows that effort has extended beyond the Gulf. Those federal naming decisions do not give the president unilateral authority to change a state’s legal name.

New Mexico officials were quick to push back

Trump’s post also called New Mexico “one of the great vote cheating states of all time.” He did not provide evidence for that claim in the post, while officials responding to him focused on the proposed name.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said New Mexico’s name “isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed.” Sen. Ben Ray Luján wrote, “It’s New Mexico, always has been and always will be.”

Rep. Melanie Stansbury responded, “Oh hell no,” while saying the state’s name carries “generations of history, culture, and family.” Rep. Gabe Vasquez said, “You don’t get to erase New Mexico. Not our name. Not our history. Not our culture.”

“New Mexico” predates the state’s admission to the Union. The name comes from the Spanish “Nuevo México” and remained in use through the region’s Spanish and Mexican periods before New Mexico became a U.S. state.

A separate claim that Trump had already signed an executive order renaming New Mexico was also false. Snopes debunked the claim, and Trump’s actual post did not announce that the state’s legal name had changed. That is different from the recent Lake America mapping change, which followed Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies to use the new name.