Trump Again Says New Mexico Should Become 'New America.' Leave the Name Alone, and Prove the Fraud Charge.
President Trump again urged New Mexico to rename itself "New America" and accused it of "Crooked Elections," a claim the state's top election official rejected.
The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.
President Trump said again on Monday that New Mexico should rename itself. This time he added a charge about the state's elections that New Mexico's top election official called "tired and patently false."
"New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America," Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday afternoon, NBC News reported. He said the change would "add great value and prestige" to the state, and claimed, without evidence, that home values and incomes would rise. He also wrote: "Maybe even the Crooked Elections, that New Mexico is known for, would become honest again!"
The state answers
Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver answered on X. "He must stop insulting the intelligence of this state's voters," she wrote, according to NBC. "New Mexicans know that we have repeatedly received high national rankings for administering some of the most secure and accessible elections in the country."
Trump also floated the name in an Oct. 3 video endorsing Greg Cunningham, the Republican challenging Rep. Gabe Vasquez, the Roswell Tribune reported. "I'm not going to push it, but a lot of people are liking it," he said. Cunningham called the controversy a "distraction" that Democrats are using against him. Vasquez called the idea "shameful," the Tribune reported.
What a president can and cannot rename
Nothing gives a president the power to rename a state. An executive order can change only what federal agencies call a place, as with the Gulf of America order.
Trump first floated the idea last month, when he wrote that "New America" would be "much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible State," according to NBC. He also posted a map with "New Mexico" crossed out. He signed an executive order in January 2025 renaming the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America," and another in August renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" during a trade war with Canada. NBC noted that those changes apply to the federal government and its agencies. Businesses and other countries are not required to follow them.
Opinion: Leave New Mexico its name, and back up the charges
New Mexico is about as American as a place can be. Its name is part of its people's history, and they have not asked to trade it. Telling them their name is not prestigious enough is not patriotism. It is a slight against fellow citizens. "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches," Solomon wrote. That applies to states as well as men.
The election charge is the more serious problem. If the president has evidence of fraud in New Mexico's elections, he should hand it to prosecutors and the public, and every conservative should back a full investigation. If he does not, he should not say it. The commandment is plain: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." A secretary of state who says her elections rank among the most secure in the country deserves either evidence or an apology. Conservatives who care about election integrity should want the charge proven or withdrawn, not left hanging over a state's voters.
There is real work for this administration to do in the weeks before the midterms. Renaming a state is not on that list. As Dock Line noted after the president's Kansas rally, words chosen carelessly can do real damage; see Trump Uses 'Shylock' Slur Defending Roger Marshall at Kansas Rally.
