Donald Trump has suggested renaming New Mexico “New America”, prompting an immediate backlash from the state’s Democratic leaders and highlighting the limits of the president’s power to alter the names of US states.
On Sunday, 6 September, Mr Trump shared an image of a map showing “Mexico” crossed out in red and replaced with “America”. The White House later reposted the image on its official X account.
Several hours afterwards, the president posted what appeared to be an AI-generated video of himself placing a label reading “America” over “Mexico” on a roadside sign welcoming visitors to New Mexico.
There was no indication that the White House had begun a formal process to change the state’s name. Unlike geographical features such as lakes and seas, the legal name of a state cannot be altered by presidential order alone.
New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, rejected the suggestion. “New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed,” she wrote on social media.
Representative Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat who represents the state, responded: “Oh hell no!” She added: “Our state’s name carries generations of history, culture, and family — and it belongs to us.”
The state’s two Democratic senators also criticised the post. Senator Martin Heinrich wrote that there were “three things I will always call by their actual names”, listing the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario and New Mexico.
New Mexico’s name predates the United States
The name has deep historical roots. The Bureau of Indian Affairs says the territory north and west of the Rio Grande was being referred to as “New Mexico” by Mexicans in the 16th century, long before the United States was founded.
The name is also set out in Article 1 of the New Mexico Constitution, which states: “The name of this state is New Mexico, and its boundaries are as follows.” Any change to the state’s legal name would therefore require action under the state’s constitutional process, rather than a unilateral decision from the White House.
Mr Trump’s post follows a series of attempts to place an “America” stamp on geographic names. On returning to office in January 2025, he ordered federal agencies to use “Gulf of America” instead of Gulf of Mexico. Last month, he signed a further order directing the federal government to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America”.
Those changes apply to federal usage, including official maps and documents, but do not compel state and local authorities or private mapmakers to adopt the new names. New Mexico officials made clear on Sunday that the state’s name was not similarly open to presidential decree.
