SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, asked Apple and Google to publicly commit that Apple Maps and Google Maps will keep labeling the state “New Mexico,” after President Donald Trump floated renaming it “New America,” the offices of Sens. Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich said.

In a joint letter to Apple CEO John Ternus and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Sens. Luján and Heinrich and Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández, Melanie Stansbury, and Gabe Vasquez — all Democrats — wrote that Trump “has no legal authority to rename New Mexico,” citing the state constitution’s plain text that “the name of this state is New Mexico.” They set a Sept. 18 deadline for a public commitment, according to the Senate release and the letter text.

“We ask each of you to publicly commit that Apple Maps and Google Maps will continue to identify the State of New Mexico as New Mexico, regardless of what the President posts on social media, what executive order he attempts to issue, or what pressure he puts on your companies.”

Maps already bent for “Gulf of America” and “Lake America”

The lawmakers pointed to Apple’s and Google’s earlier map updates after Trump directed federal agencies to use “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico and “Lake America” for Lake Ontario — changes the letter called “disappointing but unsurprising” given the companies’ federal antitrust, tariff, AI-regulation, and contracting exposure. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said Trump personally pressed Apple on the Lake Ontario label, the letter notes.

Trump spent the Labor Day weekend posting AI-generated and annotated maps that renamed New Mexico “New America,” continuing a pattern Insanity Developing and other outlets tracked earlier this month. Legal analysts note a president can order federal agencies to use preferred place names, but amending a state’s constitutional name requires the state’s own process — not a unilateral White House edict.

Neither Apple nor Google had issued a public reply to the Sept. 10 letter as of Thursday evening. The fight is less about cartography than about whether private platforms treat presidential renaming campaigns as mandatory product features.

Sources