Trump suggests renaming New Mexico 'New America' and faces pushback from Democratic leaders

US President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that New Mexico should be renamed "New America", prompting a swift reaction from the state's Democratic leaders to his latest attempt to put an American stamp on geographic names.

On social media, Trump shared an image of a map of New Mexico in which the word "Mexico" appeared crossed out with a red X and replaced by "America." Shortly afterwards, the White House republished the image on its official X account.

The president later published what appeared to be an artificial intelligence-generated video in which he placed a sticker with the word "America" over "Mexico" on a road sign reading "Welcome to New Mexico."

Trump does not have the legal authority to change the name of any state — in the case of New Mexico, the name is provided for in its Constitution. Any proposed change would have to come from the state itself, a possibility New Mexico Democratic leaders have emphatically rejected.

"New Mexico's name is not up for discussion — it has been ours since before the United States existed," Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham wrote on social media.

Representative Melanie Stansbury was more direct: "No way!", she wrote in X, adding: "The name of our state carries generations of history, culture and family — and it belongs to us."

The origins of the name New Mexico predate the founding of the United States. In the 16th century, Mexicans called the territory north and west of the Rio Grande "New Mexico," according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The state's name is also written in Article 1 of its Constitution: "The name of this state is New Mexico, and its boundaries are as follows," says the first page.

New Mexico's two Democratic senators also reacted to Trump's post. "Three things I will always call by their true names..." wrote Senator Martin Heinrich in the X, before listing the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario and New Mexico.

On the day he returned to office last year, Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The name "sounds great," the president said that month.

Last month, amid an escalating trade dispute with Canada, Trump signed another executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. Days before signing the decree, the president had published an image of a map on which Lake Ontario appeared crossed out with a red X, as well as a video generated by artificial intelligence in which he replaced a sign with the name Lake Ontario for another with the inscription "Lake America".

These decrees, however, dealt with geographical features, not the legal name of a state. The changes were implemented through the federal government's Geographic Names Information System and apply only to federal use, including on maps and documents, but do not bind state and local governments or private cartography companies.