Overview:
Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and other New Mexico political leaders are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the state be renamed “New America.”
Native Vote 2026
The New Mexico Democratic gubernatorial nominee, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), pushed back on President Donald Trump’s social media post on Sunday suggesting the state of New Mexico be renamed “New America.”
“I will always stand up for what makes New Mexico, New Mexico,” Haaland posted on X (formerly Twitter), along with a video of her at a campaign event.
“You can’t be serious. New Mexico is not for renaming. Not up for sale. My promise: I’ll always stand up for what makes New Mexico, New Mexico,” Haaland said.
“The only thing I can think of when I see that is my opponent, because he’s a Republican, he’s running for New America,” Haaland says in the video. “I’m running to be the governor of New Mexico.”
Her opponent also rejected the president’s suggestion.
Haaland’s GOP opponent, Gregg Hull, also rejected Trump’s suggestion.
“New Mexico does not need a new name,” Hull said in a statement. “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.”
Current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is term-limited, posted on X that the state’s name “isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed. What is up for debate? Who’s showing up for working families?”
The two U.S. senators representing New Mexico also gave Trump’s suggestion a thumbs down.
“Three things I will always call by their actual names,” U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) wrote on social media:
“The Gulf of Mexico
Lake Ontario
New Mexico.”
“It’s New Mexico, always has been and always will be,” U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) wrote. “Just like how you’ll always be a sinvergüenza and corrupt.”
Trump’s Sunday post comes on the heels of his renaming, by executive order, of Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” Early in his second term, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
Presidents cannot unilaterally rename states through executive order. New Mexico presents a different issue because changing the state’s official name would require action beyond a presidential social media post; the president does not have the authority to rename a state on his own.
