Trump Renames New Mexico — Wait, What?

President Trump wants New Mexico to have a new name: New America.

Quick Take

Trump posted a Truth Social image on September 6, 2026, showing a New Mexico map with “Mexico” crossed out and replaced by “America.”
He followed up with seven posts in one hour, including AI-generated maps and a claim that “the Moon Is Ours.”
New Mexico’s state name is written into its own constitution, meaning a president cannot change it by social media post or executive order.
The idea follows Trump’s earlier renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America.
New Mexico’s Democratic leaders rejected the idea right away.

What Trump Actually Posted

Trump shared his idea in plain words. “Many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA,” he wrote.

“So much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible State. Wow, I Love It!!!” The post came attached to a map graphic crossing out “Mexico” and writing “America” in its place.

The single post turned into a full weekend event. Trump followed up with seven posts in about an hour, according to reporting, sharing increasingly elaborate AI-generated versions of the “New America” map.

One post that evening also declared “The Moon Is Ours,” part of a broader stretch of social media activity that mixed serious policy signals with internet meme culture.

Why The State Name Can’t Just Change

New Mexico is not a lake or a gulf. Its name is written directly into the state’s constitution, and only the state itself can change it through its own process.

That is a different legal category than the federal geographic renamings Trump has pushed before, which run through the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names rather than state law.

That board was created in 1890 to standardize how the federal government refers to places on maps and in official documents. It does not have power over a state’s own name or its constitution.

Any real change to “New Mexico” would have to start with the New Mexico legislature or its voters, not a presidential order or a viral post.

President Trump has posted numerous memes on social media over the long weekend appearing to propose renaming the state of New Mexico to "New America."

Read more: https://t.co/y0ZSfEYBkG pic.twitter.com/0ftsbecxIN

— ABC News (@ABC) September 8, 2026

A Pattern Of Renaming Moves

This is not Trump’s first swing at a name. On his first day back in office, he signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and restoring the name Mount McKinley in Alaska, undoing the Denali name from a prior administration.

In August 2026, he issued another order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America,” saying his administration had already “notified all of the various people you have to notify”.

Those two changes worked through federal channels the president actually controls: maps, agency documents, and the naming board process.

New Mexico is a different animal entirely, since it is a sovereign state with its own constitution, not a body of water or a mountain sitting on federal land. The gap between what Trump can order and what he floated on social media is significant.

How New Mexico Responded

State Democratic leaders rejected the idea forcefully as soon as it surfaced. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has been a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, and her office has sparred with the administration over other issues too, including a recent demand for federal help with the state’s fentanyl crisis. The renaming post landed in the middle of that already tense relationship.

Trump proposes renaming New Mexico to 'New America' https://t.co/E1WGZN3sPP via @thecentersquare

— Donald M Wiencek (@WiencekDonald) September 8, 2026

Whether “New America” ever becomes more than a meme is a question for New Mexico voters and lawmakers, not Washington.

Trump has shown he can reshape federal maps and agency paperwork with the stroke of a pen. Changing what a sovereign state calls itself is a taller order, and one that requires the people who actually live there to agree.