A group of Democratic lawmakers from New Mexico sent a joint letter on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, to the chief executives of Apple and Google, requesting they maintain the state's name on their digital map services. The request follows social media posts by President Donald Trump suggesting the state be renamed "New America." Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, along with Reps. Melanie Stansbury, Teresa Leger Fernández, and Gabe Vasquez, asked Apple CEO John Ternus and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to publicly commit to identifying the state as New Mexico regardless of executive orders or social media activity.
The pushback follows a Sunday, Sept. 6, post by President Trump on Truth Social featuring a map where the word "Mexico" was crossed out and replaced with "America." Trump later wrote that the name "New America" would be "more prestigious and beautiful" for the state, which he characterized as one of the "vote cheating states." The president's posts followed a satirical social media claim about an executive order to rename the state, which fact-checking site Snopes debunked. However, the official White House X account reposted Trump's visual proposal.
The New Mexico delegation noted in their letter that the U.S. Constitution does not grant the president unilateral power to rename a state. They stated that such a change would require amending the New Mexico Constitution through the state's established legal processes. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and both candidates seeking to succeed her—Republican Gregg Hull and Democrat Deb Haaland—have also publicly rejected the proposal, as did state House Republican Leader Gail Armstrong, who characterized the administration's message as a "troll post."
The lawmakers cited recent changes to other landmarks as a reason for their concern. Following executive orders, Apple Maps and Google Maps recently renamed Lake Ontario to "Lake America" and the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" for users within the United States. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said that Apple implemented the lake name change after the president contacted the company directly during a trade dispute with Canada.
The request involves the five members of New Mexico's congressional delegation and major technology executives at Apple and Google. Lawmakers argue that the president lacks the authority to change a state's name, while the president has successfully influenced the labels of international bodies of water on American digital platforms.
For New Mexico residents, the adoption of a name change by major tech companies would affect digital navigation and local business listings. This follows the precedent set last year with the Gulf of Mexico and recently with Lake Ontario, where American users saw names changed in their digital interfaces.
The incident highlights the influence the executive branch has over private technology companies regarding geographic data. Apple and Google have not yet publicly responded to the lawmakers' letter. Lawmakers have indicated they would challenge any formal executive order as unconstitutional.