Trump Targets New Mexico for Renaming After Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario Changes
Quick Look
President Donald Trump has proposed renaming New Mexico to 'New America' following prior executive orders that renamed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America, sparking backlash from critics and resistance from some tech companies while others complied with the changes.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
President Trump has issued executive orders renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America, and previously restored the name Mount McKinley to Denali in Alaska. These actions are part of a broader pattern of symbolic geography changes tied to his vision of American greatness.
President Donald Trump has already changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, and now he’s targeting a US state for a rebrand.
Trump is spending the holiday weekend dreaming up his next demand to relabel America’s geography. He posted a map on Truth Social Sunday afternoon of New Mexico, but the word Mexico was crossed out and replaced with America.
Relabeling the southwestern state on the U.S.-Mexico border as New America is reminiscent of an executive order he signed early in his second term, in which he changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
In that January 2025 executive order titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” Trump also changed the name of North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, back to Mount McKinley.
Trump’s controversial relabeling of America’s geography didn’t stop there. The president signed an executive order late last month changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America amid an escalating trade war with Canada.
Despite Trump repeatedly suggesting Canada become the nation’s 51st state, he recently told Fox News, “They think they’re a state, but they’re not a state. Why should we be subsidizing Canada?”
Like Trump’s previous name changes on the U.S. map, his latest push to relabel New Mexico is sure to receive a wave of backlash.
The group Republicans Against Trump was quick to post on X following Trump’s suggested name change of New Mexico, writing, “WTF is wrong with him?”
When the president relabeled Lake Ontario, MapQuest refused to change its navigation app, writing on X, “We’re not changing it.”
MapQuest then saw a surge in App Store rankings, with the company’s general manager Doug Berger saying, “We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they're familiar with.
“Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right, by downloading our app.”
But tech giants Apple and Google caved to Trump, switching the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America for U.S. users of their maps apps, just as they did when the president demanded that the Gulf of Mexico be changed to the Gulf of America.
Conservative journalist Eric Daugherty, however, was seemingly on board with the relabeling of New Mexico, writing on X, “This man is on a roll!”
Trump’s ambitions to remake Washington, D.C., and the rest of the U.S. as he sees fit apparently go beyond the country, and even the world.
Shortly after Trump’s post about relabeling New Mexico, he shared an image of the moon on Truth Social, with the caption “The moon is ours.”
The 80-year-old leader has been heavily focused on his legacy during his second term, not just with changes to the map, but with renovations to the White House, including his massive and expensive ballroom, and the broader D.C. area.
He’s also slapped his name and face on several buildings in the nation’s capital, most notably the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But a federal judge demanded his name be taken down from the center, and it was removed.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Mapping companies will face continued pressure to align with Trump's geographic renaming demands.
Likely · Within weeks
Legal challenges may emerge regarding the constitutional authority to rename states via executive order or presidential directive.
Possible · Within months
Open Questions
- Will federal agencies officially adopt the name 'New America' for New Mexico?
- How will international bodies like the UN or ISO respond to unilateral name changes of shared geographic features?
- What legal challenges might arise from attempts to rename U.S. states via executive order or social media?






