President Trump on Sunday pushed the Washington Commanders NFL team to return to its previous name, which was scrapped five years ago because it included a word that many view as a slur against Native Americans.
The president also threatened to block a complicated deal for the Commanders to return to a stadium in Washington, D.C., unless they return to the name “Washington Redskins.”
“The Washington “Whatever’s” should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team. There is a big clamoring for this,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Hours later, Mr. Trump said he “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.”
The Commanders hope to build a new stadium in Washington, D.C., at the site of RFK Stadium — returning to the capital city almost 30 years after the team decamped to Maryland. The deal is complicated: The stadium sits on federal land, but Congress in January granted the city control over the land for 99 years, clearing the way for the property to be redeveloped. City councilors still need to approve the redevelopment plan.
Meanwhile in baseball, the president also pushed the Cleveland Guardians MLB team to change back to the Cleveland Indians, a name the franchise got rid of in 2021.
“MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN,” he wrote in the Sunday afternoon statement.
Mr. Trump claimed, “Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them.”
The Guardians’ president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, told reporters of the name change Sunday, “it’s a decision we made and we’ve gotten the opportunity to build the brand as the Guardians over the last four years.
CBS News has reached out to the Commanders, the NFL and the MLB for comment.
The football team in the nation’s capital changed its name from the “Washington Redskins” in 2020, amid steep criticism and pressure from advertisers, Native American groups and some politicians. The team’s then-owner, Dan Snyder, had previously vowed to leave the name in place. The team settled on the name “Commanders” after a brief period in which it was known only as the “Washington Football Team.”
A day before Sunday’s post, Jason Buck, a now-retired defensive lineman who played on the Washington team in the 1990s, told TMZ he would “give anything” to meet with Mr. Trump to discuss changing the Commanders’ name back.
Mr. Trump has weighed in on the issue in the past. Earlier this month, he told reporters he was opposed to the Commanders’ name change.
“I wouldn’t have changed the name,” he said, when asked about the acrimonious redevelopment deal that could return the team to RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. “It doesn’t have the same ring to me. But you know, winning can make everything sound good. So if they win, all of a sudden, the Commanders sounds good, but I wouldn’t have changed it.”
The team last won a Super Bowl in 1992.
And in 2020, he wrote on X: “They name teams out of STRENGTH, not weakness, but now the Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians, two fabled sports franchises, look like they are going to be changing their names in order to be politically correct.”
Earlier this year, the president also urged Massapequa High School in New York not to change its mascot’s name and logo — currently the “Chiefs” — despite a state-level ban on Native American names for school mascots.
Mr. Trump directed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “fight for the people of Massapequa on this very important issue.” Just over a month later, the Department of Education alleged the state policy violated civil rights law, and in June, the department said it had referred the case to the Department of Justice after the state of New York declined to rescind the policy.
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