Here we go again. On Monday, Donald Trump was wrapping up a long weekend at his Trump National Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey. However, that didn’t stop him posting a US Geological Survey map featuring New Mexico on Truth Social. Except “Mexico” was replaced with “America”.
Then came another, this time with “New Mexico” flamboyantly crossed out and replaced with “New America”. Then another and another.
Some hours later, Trump provided an explanation. Above an AI-generated video of him pasting an “America” sticker over a New Mexico road sign, then dancing to YMCA, Trump wrote: “Many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA. So much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible state.”
Why does this sound familiar?
Less than a fortnight ago, Trump issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario, which lies between Canada’s Ontario province and the US state of New York, as Lake America.
He called it a tribute to the lake’s historical role in his country’s economy, but it came just after the collapse of trade talks between the US and Canada. When asked about the executive order, Trump pointedly remarked that Canada “has been ripping us off for a long time on trade”.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the lake’s original name would remain “today and forever”, but US users of Apple and Google Maps are now being shown the new name.
Back in January 2025, Trump also signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The US Board on Geographic Names was obliged to comply, and some map providers followed suit.
Donald Trump in the Oval Office with a map showing the ‘Gulf of America’ (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty)While many saw it as a continuation of his antagonism to Mexico over immigration and trade, the official explanation was that it was “in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our nation”.
America itself was named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. But it’s unlikely Trump was aiming to honour Vespucci.
What are people saying about this latest possible name change?
Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico’s Democratic Governor, said the state’s name “isn’t up for debate – it’s been ours since before the United States existed”.
New Mexico’s state constitution begins with the words: “The name of this state is New Mexico”. Any formal name change at a state level would require a majority vote in the state legislature and a referendum. Rhode Island did this in 2020, when that state’s citizens voted to drop the “and Providence Plantations” part of the name.
Trump may already know this – which might explain why he posted it on Truth Social, praising an idea “many people suggested”, rather than issuing an executive order.
While Trump has the power to direct the US Board on Geographic Names, private companies aren’t obliged to comply. The Colorado-based MapQuest company made headlines – and briefly topped the app store – by sticking with Lake Ontario and Gulf of Mexico.
What other things has Trump renamed?
Trump has made a business out of branding. It’s been a recurring theme in his entire career.
The very first building he built, in 1983, he named the Trump Tower. When he buys things, he renames them: the Trump Plaza, Trump Castle and Trump Taj Mahal casinos in Atlantic City all began their lives without his imprimatur, as did the Trump Shuttle airline and his Trump Princess superyacht.
Trump Tower, a 68-story mixed-use building, in New York City was originally known as the Bonwit Teller building (Photo: Zhang Weiguo/VCG via Getty)In his current term, Trump has launched “Trump Accounts”, a Trump Gold Card visa program, a medicine website called TrumpRx and a Trump Mobile phone company. He has also put his face on America’s National Park pass and issued a Trump crypto coin and a “Patriot Passport” with his portrait on the inside cover.
Florida has renamed Palm Beach International Airport to President Donald J Trump International Airport, and a bill before Congress aims to rename Washington Dulles to the Donald J Trump International Airport.
Another bill before Congress, the Golden Age Act, proposes “to require $100 notes to include a portrait of Donald J Trump”. Another to rename Washington’s Metrorail as the “Trump Train”. However, a proposal to add his face to Mount Rushmore is unlikely to get off the ground.
In addition to the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, Trump has also renamed:
North America’s tallest mountain. Barack Obama renamed it Denali in 2015, but Trump reverted it back to its original Mount McKinley. Alaskans had campaigned for years for the Denali name, as US president William McKinley had no direct connection to Alaska. The Kennedy Center in Washington. In February 2025, the Trump administration appointed a new board. In December, the board voted to rename the arts centre as The Donald J Trump and The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, or the Trump-Kennedy Center. However, in May, a judge ruled that the name change was illegal. The US Institute of Peace. In December, the Department of State announced this independent, Congress-funded think-tank would be renamed the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace “to reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history”. The Department of Defense. It became the Department of War. The executive order, a year ago, said it was done to “ensure peace through strength, as it demonstrates our ability and willingness to fight and win wars”. Trump said it “sends a message of victory”.Why is Trump doing this?
Trump latest move could be a political swipe at a state that is currently controlled by Democrats. However, its Governor suggested another theory: that the White House is “wasting time coloring on maps” in order to keep media headlines distracted from the country’s ongoing war with Iran and the economic fallout it is causing.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham says Donald Trump is trying to ‘distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran’ (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty)“While the President tries to distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran, gas prices keep soaring. Americans are also spending more at the grocery store, losing access to health care and wondering if they’ll ever be able to afford a home,” Grisham wrote on social media.
With the US midterms rapidly approaching, Trump and the Republicans are desperate for media cycles that reinforce partisan or culture war-coded debates, rather than reflecting on the state of the nation.
Derek Alderman, a professor at the University of Tennessee, told CNA that Trump leaning into name changes could be aimed at distracting from the financial fallout from a trade war, to project US power or to “inscribe an ‘America First’ nationalist ideology onto the landscape”.
Either way, it is unlikely Trump will stop trying to name, or rename, things.
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