President Donald Trump is continuing a streak of provocative rebranding efforts, this time turning his attention toward the Southwestern United States. Following a recent executive order that renamed Lake Ontario as Lake America amidst simmering trade disputes with Canada, the president has suggested a similar overhaul for the state of New Mexico. Through a post on Truth Social, which was subsequently amplified by the official White House account on X, Trump shared an image of a map where the word Mexico was crossed out in bright red and replaced with America, effectively proposing the name New America.
This latest suggestion follows a pattern of nationalist naming conventions seen early in Trump’s second term, including the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. While these changes to bodies of water were implemented via executive orders directing the Department of the Interior to update federal geographic systems—prompting tech giants like Google and Apple to adjust their maps for U.S. users—the situation regarding state names is legally distinct. Unlike federal landmarks or waterways, a sitting president does not possess the unilateral authority to rename a U.S. state.
Despite the visual nature of the social media posts, neither the president nor the White House has introduced any formal legislative proposal or policy framework to enact such a change. There has been no indication that this represents anything more than symbolic rhetoric, though it marks another flashpoint in Trump’s approach to national identity and geography. The move ignores centuries of history tied to Nuevo México, a name used by Spanish explorers since the late 1500s long before it became a U.S. territory in 1848 and eventually achieved statehood in 1912.
As of now, officials from both the White House and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office have remained silent regarding the request for comment on whether there will be any genuine push for the transition to New America. This silence comes as public opinion remains divided over previous renamings; polls indicate that a majority of Americans rejected the shift to Lake America, suggesting that further attempts at rebranding regional identities may face significant resistance across various sectors of society.
