Democrats have hit back against Donald Trump’s suggestion that the state of New Mexico should be renamed “New America”, accusing the US president of trying to distract from his war on Iran and rising prices. The administration moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” hours after Trump’s return to office in January 2025. In August, as trade tensions escalated between the US and Canada, it moved to do the same with Lake Ontario, moving to rename it as “Lake America”.
The president spent Labor Day posting memes on social media platform in support of changing the name of the state of New Mexico to “New America” as tense trade negotiations with Mexico ramp up. On Sunday Trump claimed that he had received suggestions to change the name of the state and that he liked the idea. Any renaming would require New Mexico voters to approve an amendment to the state constitution through a ballot measure.
The state is currently governed by Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat. She has been in the job since 1 January 2019, and was re-elected in 2022. The governor said in a post on X: “New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate – it’s been ours since before the United States existed.” “While the President tries to distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran, gas prices keep soaring,” she wrote. Melanie Stansbury, one New Mexico’s Democratic US House representatives, was also resolute.
We are fiercely proud of our name, our people, and our places, including this river.” Even Greg Hull, the Republican nominee running to replace Grisham, who is term-limited, denounced the president’s suggestion. 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 negotiation,” Hull said in a statement to Santa Fe Public Radio.
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