{"id":17549,"date":"2026-09-10T10:49:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T02:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549"},"modified":"2026-09-10T10:49:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T02:49:45","slug":"new-mexicans-meet-trumps-threat-to-change-states-name-with-ridicule-and-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549","title":{"rendered":"New Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Route 66 at the west end of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photograph: Susan Montoya Bryan\/AP\u00a9\u00a0Photograph: Susan Montoya Bryan\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When scrolling through social media over the Labor Day weekend, Steven Michael Quezada, an actor, comedian and native New Mexican, was stopped cold by a post about Donald Trump\u2019s recent call<\/a> to rename New Mexico<\/a> as \u201cNew America\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt first I thought, nah, that\u2019s got to be a joke,\u201d said Quezada<\/a>, who played the drug enforcement agent Steven Gomez in the legendary TV series Breaking Bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not drawing a lot of laughs in the state with the largest percentage of Latinos and the most federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn his mind, the word \u2018Mexico\u2019 has some kind of connotation of people of color and it just feels like the whitewashing of our state,\u201d said Sarah Noss, a native New Mexican and non-profit executive, one of many residents expressing outrage at Trump\u2019s social media posts<\/a> in interviews with the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: Trump\u2019s call to rename New Mexico \u2018New America\u2019 is a distraction tactic, Democrats say<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president\u2019s calls to rename New Mexico have reopened deep wounds for a state with a racial and ethnic composition that has made it a target for bigoted attacks dating back to 1848, when the US acquired the Mexican territory as part of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Later, the former civil war general William T Sherman said the US should \u201cdeclare war on Mexico and make it take back New Mexico\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An AI-generated video<\/a> of the president changing a \u201cWelcome to New Mexico\u201d sign to \u201cWelcome to New America\u201d comes 10 days after the Trump administration sued<\/a> the state for providing in-state tuition and state-funded financial assistance to undocumented immigrant students \u2013 the majority of whom are Latino \u2013 another example of what some residents said were policies targeting people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were New Mexico even before we were the United States,\u201d said Antoinette Armijo-Rougemont, a multigenerational New Mexican and army national guard veteran. \u201cEvery day is a new illogical idea. He should be focusing on ending the war and improving the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The messages have tapped into longstanding anger in the state over racist government policies. US lawmakers resisted statehood for New Mexico for more than 60 years \u2013 until 1912 \u2013 because of its large Spanish-speaking and Native populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were denied statehood because we were considered mixed-blood Mexicans, fanatical Catholics and savage Indians,\u201d said Rob Martinez, the New Mexico state historian. \u201cWe went to bed Mexicans and woke up supposedly American citizens, but we weren\u2019t treated like Mexican American citizens, we were treated like foreigners in our own land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: America: the gulf, the lake and now the state \u2013 what\u2019s next on Trump\u2019s huge renaming spree? | Marina Hyde<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martinez said the state\u2019s name traces back to the 1560s, when Spanish settlers called it Nueva Mexico, in a reference to Mexico City. The name evolved to Nuevo Mexico, then New Mexico. By the 1920s, various civic groups launched campaigns to rename New Mexico, including a push to call the state Coolidge<\/a>, in honor of the sitting president Calvin Coolidge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans in the state, including gubernatorial candidate Gregg Hull, have dismissed the president\u2019s suggestion out of hand, and congressional candidate Greg Cunningham, who is running in a swing district, called the president\u2019s posts \u201csatire\u201d<\/a> and an attempt by Democrats to \u201cdistract voters from their awful record by focusing on what the president is posting on social media\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quezada, who called his 2022 comedy special The New Mexican<\/a>, said Trump is like a comic on stage who knows he is losing the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s a mess right now, and I guess the best entertainer knows to distract you from what\u2019s really going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the last laugh will be for New Mexicans, who would have to approve an amendment to the state\u2019s constitution for a name change, an unlikelihood in a state in which every major statewide office is held by a Democrat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When scrolling through social media over the Labor Day weekend, Steven Michael Quezada, an actor, comedian and native New Mexican, was stopped cold by a post about Donald Trump\u2019s recent call to rename New Mexico as \u201cNew America\u201d. \u201cAt first I thought, nah, that\u2019s got to be a joke,\u201d said Quezada, who played the drug enforcement agent Steven Gomez in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":17550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1733,3171,1724],"class_list":["post-17549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-new","tag-photograph","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When scrolling through social media over the Labor Day weekend, Steven Michael Quezada, an actor, comedian and native New Mexican, was stopped cold by a post about Donald Trump\u2019s recent call to rename New Mexico as \u201cNew America\u201d. \u201cAt first I thought, nah, that\u2019s got to be a joke,\u201d said Quezada, who played the drug enforcement agent Steven Gomez in […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-10T02:49:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-10T02:49:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1-12.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sddm0805\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/\",\"name\":\"LISTEN WORLD\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1-12.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1-12.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":512},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549\",\"name\":\"New Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage - LISTEN WORLD\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-10T02:49:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-10T02:49:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/401cf16edf5abe8109bc4f81d40e2298\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u9996\u9875\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/401cf16edf5abe8109bc4f81d40e2298\",\"name\":\"sddm0805\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b923aee309f3523e57a0208042f74bc6f6899d4ce27b86964e2e49bf87805ff1?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b923aee309f3523e57a0208042f74bc6f6899d4ce27b86964e2e49bf87805ff1?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"sddm0805\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?author=11\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage - LISTEN WORLD","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage - LISTEN WORLD","og_description":"When scrolling through social media over the Labor Day weekend, Steven Michael Quezada, an actor, comedian and native New Mexican, was stopped cold by a post about Donald Trump\u2019s recent call to rename New Mexico as \u201cNew America\u201d. \u201cAt first I thought, nah, that\u2019s got to be a joke,\u201d said Quezada, who played the drug enforcement agent Steven Gomez in […]","og_url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549","og_site_name":"LISTEN WORLD","article_published_time":"2026-09-10T02:49:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-09-10T02:49:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1-12.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"sddm0805","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/","name":"LISTEN WORLD","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1-12.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1-12.jpg","width":768,"height":512},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#webpage","url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549","name":"New Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage - LISTEN WORLD","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2026-09-10T02:49:38+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-10T02:49:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/401cf16edf5abe8109bc4f81d40e2298"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17549#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u9996\u9875","item":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Mexicans meet Trump\u2019s threat to change state\u2019s name with ridicule and outrage"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/401cf16edf5abe8109bc4f81d40e2298","name":"sddm0805","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b923aee309f3523e57a0208042f74bc6f6899d4ce27b86964e2e49bf87805ff1?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b923aee309f3523e57a0208042f74bc6f6899d4ce27b86964e2e49bf87805ff1?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","caption":"sddm0805"},"url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?author=11"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17551,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17549\/revisions\/17551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}