Staff Reports
New Mexico Democratic leaders aggressively pushed back on President Donald Trump’s social media posts about renaming the state of New Mexico to “New America.”
“New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate—it’s been ours since before the United States existed,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a post on X featuring an image of the state labeled with “New Mexico.”
Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the Democratic nominee for governor who wants to assume Lujan Grisham’s Santa Fe seat in November, wrote on X: “I will always stand up for what makes New Mexico, New Mexico,” with a video of her at a campaign event.
Haaland’s gubernatorial opponent, Gregg Hull, also rejected Trump’s trolling –– mostly posted as a series of memes on the social media platform “Truth Social.”
“New Mexico does not need a new name,” Hull, a Republican, said in a statement, according to local news outlets. “This state carries the history of Native nations, and Spanish explorers who named this land nearly five hundred years ago, and generations of families who built New Mexico into what it is today. That identity is not up for negotiations.”
In a social media post, Trump called the Land of Enchantment the “great vote cheating states of all time.”
The name change, he claimed, is “… much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potential incredible State. Wow, I Love It!”
Trump’s latest posts fit a pattern from his presidency, with his moving to rename other places on the map. In late August he signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America” amid a U.S.-Canada trade war.
In January 2025, on his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” He also renamed Denali, the highest peak in North America, as “Mount McKinley,” after the 25th president.
The move infuriated Alaska lawmakers, including those from Trump’s own party.
THE TAKEAWAY
Of course, the President cannot unilaterally change the name of a state the way he can order the federal government to change how it refers to a mountain or a body of water in government databases and documents.
The name is spelled out in the opening lines of the state’s constitution: “The name of this state is New Mexico.”
To change the name, New Mexico’s voters would need to amend the state’s constitution.
Both of New Mexico’s Democratic senators rejected Trump’s latest posts.
“Three things I will always call by their actual names… The Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, New Mexico,” Sen. Martin Heinrich wrote in a statement.
“It’s New Mexico, always has been and always will be,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján stated. “Just like how you’ll always be a sinvergüenza and corrupt,” he added, using the Spanish word for scoundrel.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., was perhaps the most blunt of the New Mexico lawmakers:
“Oh hell no!” she posted on X. “Our state’s name carries generations of history, culture, and family—and it belongs to us. We’re New Mexicans. Period.”
This whole fiasco comes on the heels of Heinrich releasing a statement in which he accused Trump of padding his own wallet with gas and oil sales thanks to the Iran War.
