Trump demands New Mexico renamed to ‘New America’ setting off firestorm with two weeks to the midterms

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1h ago

By ELINA SHIRAZI, US SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER 20:42 19 Oct 2026, updated 21:43 19 Oct 2026

President Donald Trump renewed his push for New Mexico to undergo a rebranding, asserting on Truth Social that ‘New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America’ with just days ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump argued that ‘we are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!’

Trump pitched the proposed moniker as an economic and cultural boost, claiming ‘home values and incomes would rise’ alongside local patriotism.

He also connected the pitch to his broader commentary on voting integrity, adding, ‘Maybe even the Crooked Elections, that New Mexico is known for, would become honest again!’

Last month, Trump posted a bizarre AI-altered meme showing New Mexico with a new name.

In line with his other relabelings, like turning the Lake of Ontario into the Lake of America and the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America, Trump posted the meme showing the southwestern state with an updated name, ‘New America.’

The post showed a map of the state where ‘Mexico’ had been crossed out in red and replaced with ‘America.’

About an hour later, the 80-year-old published an AI video of him slapping a new ‘America’ label on a ‘Welcome to New Mexico’ highway sign before busting into his signature dual fist dance routine.

‘New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate – it’s been ours since before the United States existed,’ New Mexico Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said prior.

She called the post a distraction from price hikes associated with the Iran war.

‘While the White House wastes time coloring on maps, Nuevo México is busy doing the work,’ the governor added.

Despite the perceived threat, the president does not have the power to rename New Mexico.

Any change proposed to the name has to come from within the state, since the name is written in its Constitution.

Last month, Democrats attacked the President after he proposed the name change.

‘It’s New Mexico, always has been and always will be,’ Senator Ben Ray Lujan wrote in response. ‘Just like how you’ll always be a sinvergüenza and corrupt,’ he added, calling the president a ‘shameless person’ or ‘scoundrel’ in Spanish.

Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury reacted: ‘Oh hell no! Our state’s name carries generations of history, culture, and family – and it belongs to us. We’re New Mexicans. Period.’

Back in late August, Trump signed an executive order officially changing Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America.

‘We defend Canada for nothing, we don’t get anything,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office when asked what prompted these changes. ‘We love the people of Canada, but their representatives aren’t doing an appropriate job.’

Trump said he has been thinking of this name change for a ‘long time’.

Trump teased then that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans could be next on his radar.

‘Actually, as you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico and we changed it, and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,’ Trump noted. ‘So, if you think about it, we have a Gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific.’

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