A new poll found 25 percent of Americans approve of President Trump’s threat to nix a stadium deal in Washington over the name of the local football team.
“I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington,” Trump said on Sunday.
“The Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone. Cleveland should do the same with the Cleveland Indians,” he added.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the YouGov Monday poll said they disapproved of the president’s comments regarding a name reversal for the Washington Commanders NFL franchise, and 16 percent of people were unsure of their feelings.
Under the agreement, the football franchise would return from playing gamedays in Maryland to a renovated multi-billion-dollar stadium in Washington by 2030. The Commanders franchise has pledged to invest $2.7 billion in the project, marking the single largest private investment in D.C.’s history.
A majority, 65 percent of participants from the country’s Northeastern and Southern regions, said it was unacceptable for the U.S. president to tell a professional sports team to change its name. Fifteen percent disagreed and 21 percent were unsure.
The poll found that only 34 percent of Americans approved of the 2022 decision to rename the Washington Redskins, the Commanders. Forty-three percent of people disapproved of the move, while 23 percent were unsure how they felt.
YouGov surveyed 4162 US adults with a plus or minus 2.7 percent margin of error.
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