‘Isn’t up for debate’: New Mexico governor hits back at Trump over ‘New America’ posts
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
Renaming a state that's been called New Mexico since before the United States existed is not exactly the top-shelf priority we'd hope for from the White House on any given week. It's a bit like rearranging furniture in a house you don't own. New Mexico became a territory in 1850 and a state in 1912, named for the older Mexico, not the other way around.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-AZ) fired back at President Donald Trump after he teased the idea of changing her state’s name to “New America.” Grisham, who has led the state since 2019, took to social media after Trump hinted that New Mexico could be next for a name change.
Trump previously pushed for the Gulf […]
Original source:
Read at Washington ExaminerHow We See It
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Renaming a state that's been called New Mexico since before the United States existed is not exactly the top-shelf priority we'd hope for from the White House on any given week. It's a bit like rearranging furniture in a house you don't own. New Mexico became a territory in 1850 and a state in 1912, named for the older Mexico, not the other way around. That's just history, not a talking point.
That said, Governor Lujan Grisham's outrage has a familiar ring to it. This is a governor who has spent years presiding over one of the more porous stretches of our southern border, watching cartels run drugs and people through her state like it's a turnstile, and she's never quite mustered this kind of righteous fire for that. Suddenly a social media tease about a name gets treated like an existential threat to the republic, while actual sovereignty issues on her watch get a shrug.
We're not losing sleep over "New America" as a serious policy proposal, because it isn't one. Trump trolls, that's not new information to anyone who's watched him operate since 2015. The bigger tell here is what gets a governor's blood up and what doesn't. A name is symbolic. Border security is not. If Lujan Grisham wants to lecture the president about what "isn't up for debate," her own state's enforcement record would be a good place to start applying that standard.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.