A screenshot authentically shows a social media post by U.S. President Donald Trump, in which he said the state of Montana should be renamed to “Mountain.”
In October, a screenshot spread purportedly showing a social media post by U.S. President Donald Trump, in which he appeared to say the state of Montana should be renamed to “Mountain.”
Trump allegedly questioned why the United States is using a Spanish word, Montana, to name one of its states, and supposedly suggested a rebrand would drive up property prices for Montanans. The text reads, in full (archived):
Montana should immediately change its name to MOUNTAIN. Many people don’t know this, but Montana is a SPANISH word. It means MOUNTAIN! Why are we using Spanish words to name our GREAT AMERICAN STATES? We speak ENGLISH in America, not Spanish! The name MOUNTAIN would bring tremendous VALUE and PRESTIGE to the State. Property Values would SKYROCKET, wages would go UP, and the people would be even PROUDER to live in the most BEAUTIFUL State in the Country! The Radical Left doesn’t want you to know this. They love Spanish Mountains. I love AMERICAN MOUNTAINS! Nobody loves Mountains more than me. The biggest, most beautiful Mountains. We’re going to make Montana AMERICAN AGAIN! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
The screenshot spread on X and Threads, while Snopes readers contacted us to ask if the president really demanded the name change.
In short, the post in question is fake. It was not possible to find a trace of it on Trump’s official X or Truth Social accounts. Searching for sentences from the alleged post on Trump’s Truth, an archive of the president’s Truth Social posts, also returned no results.
The screenshot features a mixture of emblems and profile photos from Trump’s various social media profiles. It contains his current Truth Social profile photo but the gray, verified checkmark from his X account. Trump also styles his account name as “@realDonaldTrump” on both platforms. In the fake post, his username features a capital “R” at the start of “Real.” Additionally, the format in the screengrab is also incorrect when compared to authentic posts on both platforms.
It is possible the fake post has a satirical origin. The earliest version of the screenshot appears to be an Oct. 20 Instagram post (archived) from an account called @whatthehelena_, which describes itself as, “Satire about life in Helena, Montana and Montana in general.”
Snopes contacted the @whatthehelena_ page to ask whether a manager of the account created the fake screenshot. We await a response to our inquiry.
Though the post in question is fake, Montana’s name does stem from a non-English language. According to Montana Historical Society on an official state government website, the name is a “Latin and Spanish word for a mountainous region,” first applied to the territory at its creation in 1864. Montana became a U.S. state in 1889.
For further reading, Snopes has previously investigated other rumors about Trump wanting to rename things.
