Trump Renews Call to Rename New Mexico as New America

President Donald Trump on Monday renewed his call for New Mexico to change its name to "New America," in a Truth Social post sent shortly before he left the White House for a midterm campaign rally in Kansas.

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

He said the new name would add "great value and prestige" to the state, claimed that home values and incomes would rise, and said residents would be "even prouder" while saluting the flag. He added: "Maybe even the Crooked Elections, that New Mexico is known for, would become honest again!" He offered no evidence for the election claim, and none for the claim that a new name would lift home values and incomes.

Not the first time

Trump first floated the idea in September, when he posted a map of the state with the word "Mexico" crossed out and "America" written in its place. The White House reposted the image on its official X account.

Earlier this month, in a video endorsing Republican congressional candidate Greg Cunningham, Trump greeted viewers as residents of "New America, formerly known as New Mexico," and said he liked the change but would not push it. Monday's post dropped that softness. This time the change was demanded at once, in the middle of a midterm campaign in which Republicans are fighting to hold their majorities in Congress.

Trump lost New Mexico, a reliably Democratic state, by 6 points in 2024, according to CNN.

A running list of new names

The post fits a pattern from this presidency. Last year, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America in federal use. In August, he signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, a move tied to his trade fight with Canada. He has also repeatedly floated renaming the Strait of Hormuz the "Trump Strait."

A president can direct how federal agencies label bodies of water and other features in federal records. A state is a different matter, because a state name does not sit in a federal registry.

Why a post cannot do it

New Mexico's name is written into the state constitution, which states: "The name of this state is New Mexico." Changing it would take a constitutional amendment passed by the state legislature and then approved by voters across the state. The president has no power to order it, and state leaders have shown no interest in trying.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has opposed the idea. Both candidates running to succeed her rejected it last month. Democrat Deb Haaland is running for governor, and so is Republican Gregg Hull. "New Mexico does not need a new name," Hull said last month. "This state carries the history of Native nations and Spanish explorers who named this land nearly 500 years ago, and generations of families who built New Mexico into what it is today."

The state's name predates the United States itself and reaches back to the 16th century, according to a fact sheet on state name origins from the Bureau of Indian Affairs cited by CNN.

Trump made the post on his way out of Washington. He was due in Kansas on Monday evening to speak for Republican Senator Roger Marshall at the Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, outside Wichita, in a Senate race that has tightened late in the campaign.