“Oh hell no!”: New Mexicans react to President Trump renaming New Mexico to “New America” in social posts

By Pat Davis, The Paper. & New Mexico Political Report — Having successfully persuaded the U.S. government and several of the most popular map sites to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America, President Donald Trump’s next renaming target appears to be none other than the Land of Enchantment.

On Sunday morning, Trump shared a map of New Mexico renamed “New America” to his TruthSocial and Twitter accounts. A few hours later he used social media posts to claim ownership of the Moon. They were reshared by the official White House social media posts, as well. The posts were shared with a crude map of the state labeled as “New Mexico” but with Mexico crossed out and replaced with “America.” Follow up requests by nm.news for an interview with the president or comment from the White House were not returned on Sunday.

Trump has famously used executive orders to change the how the U.S. government recognizes the name of several geographic landmarks during his term. After renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, he followed suit by renaming Denali, the tallest mountain in North America located in Alaska formerly designated by its Native American name, to Mt. McKinley after President McKinley. Last month, he ordered Lake Ontario changed to Lake America after a trade dispute with Canada broke down. Google Maps and Apple Maps followed the government’s lead in renaming those locations for users located in the United States.

New Mexico became a state in 1912 by order of Congress signed by President Howard Taft. No state name has ever been changed, but it would likely require a formal request from the state legislature and Congressional approval. With the state legislature and all 5 members of New Mexico’s Congressional delegation aligning with the Democratic Party, that is not likely.

“Oh, hell no”

New Mexicans were quick to defend the traditional name of the 48th state.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said “New Mexico’s name is not up for debate.”

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich tweeted that he would always call New Mexico, Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico by their pre-Trump names.

Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, said simply, “Oh hell no!”