DALLAS — The Republican Party of New Mexico’s Executive Director, Leticia Munoz, responded to President Donald Trump’s suggestion to rename the state to “New America.” Munoz, who has served as the state party’s executive director for over three years, stated in an interview with the Washington Examiner following Trump’s speech at the GOP’s midterm convention that New Mexico requires a “new governor, not so much a new name.”
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-AZ), who has been in office since 2019, dismissed Trump’s name change proposal earlier this week, asserting that “New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed.” Grisham also highlighted various issues facing Americans, including rising gas prices and healthcare access, stating, “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.”
Munoz characterized Trump’s suggestion as “parody,” noting that the New Mexico delegation found humor in it. “We think it’s funny,” Munoz said. “We understand President Trump. We’ve always understood him since he was on Twitter. You know, he loves to trigger people, and I just think it’s parody with everything that they’ve been renaming. So, we just take it in stride.”
Trump has previously attempted to change the names of two bodies of water, recently renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America and the “Gulf of Mexico” to the Gulf of America. However, changing the name of a state would be more complex, as New Mexico’s name is enshrined in the state’s constitution. Munoz remarked, “I’m sure that he knows that there’s a lot of obstacles he’ll need to go through to change the name. It’s not like changing, you know, the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. You know what I mean? That’s so much different than changing a state.”