New Mexico’s governor claps back at Trump’s plan to rename her state

New Mexico’s governor fired back at President Donald Trump over his latest proposal to rename the Southwestern state.

Trump has repeatedly called for renaming New Mexico “New America,” most recently in a Monday afternoon Truth Social post. He claimed in the post that the change would boost local home values and fix what he called the state’s “crooked elections.”

“This tired New America bit again?” Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham wrote on X. “You have to ask — what policy failure is Trump trying to distract Americans from this time?

“Let me repeat: New Mexico was New Mexico long before the United States existed and we’ll be New Mexico forevermore,” Grisham, a Democrat, continued. “Americans should also know we’ve been busy delivering universal, no cost child care. We’re also the only state that fully replaced health care subsidies that were gutted by Trump and congressional Republicans.”

She added that the state’s elections are among the most secure in the country, according to independent experts.

Hours earlier, the 80-year-old president had renewed his rebranding proposal on Truth Social.

“New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America,” Trump wrote. “We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America! The name would add great value and prestige to the State!”

“Home Values and Incomes would rise, and you would be even prouder while saluting our beautiful American Flag,” he added. “Maybe even the Crooked Elections, that New Mexico is known for, would become honest again!”

Trump first began calling for the name change in September, when he posted numerous maps depicting the Land of Enchantment emblazoned with the name “New America.”

The president cannot unilaterally rename a U.S. state. That process would need to happen at the state level.

The most recent state name change occurred in 2020, when Rhode Island voters approved a constitutional amendment shortening its official name from “State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” to “State of Rhode Island.”

While some have dismissed Trump’s Truth Social posts about New Mexico as trolling, others have said they should be taken seriously, given his recent push to rename other places.

In August, amid his trade war with Canada, the president signed an executive order directing federal agencies to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” Last January, he signed a similar order rebranding the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

While the president can direct how the federal government refers to geographic features, he cannot compel foreign nations, private entities or even U.S. states to follow his lead.

Still, both Apple and Google Maps updated their maps for U.S. users to reflect the changes in Trump’s executive orders.

“I called Google, Google Maps,” the president said at a rally this month, while discussing his executive order rebranding the Gulf of Mexico. “See, Google wouldn’t have taken my call in the first [term]. Now they kiss my a**.”

Google has said it updates its maps to “reflect name changes in official government sources.”

In the hopes of avoiding a similar situation, New Mexico’s congressional delegation — five Democrats — sent letters to the executives of both companies last month, asking them to “publicly commit” to keeping New Mexico on Apple Maps and Google Maps.

“Let us be clear: the President has no legal authority to rename New Mexico,” the lawmakers wrote. “Our state’s name belongs to the people of New Mexico and is rooted in our history and our Constitution, which clearly states that ‘the name of this state is New Mexico.’”