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In October 2026,Facebookpostsclaimed that the town of Mexico, New York, announced it was changing its name to "Epstein List" in order to avoid being forcibly renamed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
"We figured if we changed our name to something he absolutely doesn't want to talk about, we might fly under the radar," Town Supervisor Mark Henderson supposedly said of the name change.
(The Innerloop Blog Facebook Page)
The story spread not long after Trumpposted on social mediacalling for thestate of New Mexicoto "immediately change its name to New America."
Throughout his second term, Trump has signed executive orders mandating the federal government change the names of three major landmarks, including renaming theGulf of Mexico to the Gulf of AmericaandLake Ontario to Lake America, and Snopes has previouslyexamined his authority to do so. However, Trump has no such authority to change the name of a state,according to The New York Times. That would require approval from both the state legislature and Congress.
Regardless, some social media uses seemed to interpret the rumor about Mexico, New York, changing its name, ostensibly to avoid the same fate, as true. Snopes readerscontacted usto investigate its legitimacy.
We first searched for the rumor onDuckDuckGo,GoogleandYahoo. If the name change really had really happened, journalists with reputable national or local news outlets would have reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence. Depending on the exact details of the name change, its also possible that we would find evidence showing the town's name was already being replaced.
But, that was not the case.
Instead, we found the rumor originated from aFacebook pageandwebsitecalled The Innerloop Blog, which bills itself as a satirical or parody site providing "Rochester NY's #1 Source for Fake News."
The Innerloop Blog first shared the rumor on Oct. 20 (archived), and its site and social media pages contained countless satirical stories about fictitious happenings in upstate New York, sometimes poking fun at the Trump administration.
Because the effectiveness ofsatire is subjective, we use"originated as satire" or "labeled satire" ratings based on creators' description of their work. It's your call on whether you agree.
