United States President Donald Trump posted a series of altered maps on social media proposing to rename New Mexico to New America, drawing swift rebukes from state leaders who noted the state existed before the federal union. The proposal follows prior federal renaming orders affecting geographic landmarks like Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico.
Social Media Maps and the Proposal to Rename New Mexico
During the Labor Day weekend, President Donald Trump shared an image on Truth Social featuring a map of New Mexico with a large red X crossing out Mexico and replacing it with America, creating the designation New America. The official White House account reposted the image on X.
Following the initial image, Trump published an artificial intelligence-generated video showing himself walking up to a road sign that read Welcome to New Mexico, covering the word Mexico with a paper label reading America and dancing to music. The online posts claimed that many people suggested the change because the name sounds more prestigious and beautiful for the territory, while also describing the state as a place with severe election fraud.
As the holiday weekend progressed, the online activity escalated. According to financial and news platform reports, Trump published a total of seven map variations featuring the New America designation on September 7, alongside a broader map concept that overlaid the American flag onto neighboring nations and Caribbean island territories.
State Officials Push Back Against the White House
Local and federal officials from New Mexico rejected the renaming concept immediately. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham responded that the state’s name is not up for discussion. She stated that the name has existed since before the United States was established. She also accused Trump of attempting to divert the attention of the American people from what she termed a disastrous war in Iran and continuously soaring gasoline prices, adding that the white house was wasting time drawing on maps.
Other federal lawmakers from the state voiced similar opposition. Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich wrote on social media that there are three places where he will permanently use their true names: the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, and New Mexico. Representative Gabe Vasquez similarly criticized the digital map changes, asserting that external efforts cannot erase the history and culture of the state.
Beyond political pushback, legal experts and media reports noted a fundamental constitutional barrier to the proposal. According to reports from CNN, the federal government has no constitutional power to change the name of a state, and that authority belongs entirely to state governments and residents. A formal name change requires approval first from the state legislature and then passage through a public referendum before the state government can notify Congress and the federal government of the change.
A Pattern of Geographic Renaming Efforts
The New Mexico map proposal builds upon a series of similar executive actions and public suggestions by the administration targeting North American geographic landmarks. Last year, upon taking office, Trump signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and he also ordered Mount McKinley to be restored as the federal designation instead of Denali. These orders were limited to federal publications, communications, and federal map representations, and are subject to being reversed by any successor through a new executive order.
More recently, amid trade disputes involving Canada, Trump signed an executive order on August 27 directing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to update the Geographic Names Information System to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America. That decision prompted responses from Canadian authorities, including the Ontario provincial government erecting large billboards along the lake shore on August 29 with English and French messaging declaring that Lake Ontario is and always will be the lake’s name.
While commercial mapping services have adopted certain federal naming changes for domestic users, legal analysts and constitutional provisions emphasize that state names require formal state-level legislative and electoral processes that federal decrees cannot override.
