President Donald Trump has threatened to derail plans for a new stadium for the Washington Commanders unless the team reverts to its former name, the Redskins.
In a post published on Truth Social, Trump claimed there is a “big clamouring” for the NFL team to abandon its current identity and return to the name it dropped in 2020. He argued that such a move would increase the franchise’s value and public appeal.
The Commanders originally abandoned the Redskins name — widely condemned as racist and offensive to Native Americans — in July 2020 after years of pressure from civil rights groups, sponsors, and Native communities. The team played as the Washington Football Team for two seasons before adopting the Commanders name in 2022.
In April this year, the franchise reached a deal to construct a new £3 billion, 65,000-seat stadium on the site of the old RFK Stadium, where the team played from 1961 to 1997. Efforts to accelerate planning approval for the development were renewed last week, as Republican lawmakers pushed DC Council to fast-track the process.
Trump, who in February became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl — where the Philadelphia Eaglesdefeated the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 — also took aim at another professional sports franchise for abandoning a controversial name.
Addressing Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, who changed their name from the Cleveland Indians in 2021, Trump called for a reversal.
“Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen,” he said. “Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them.”
In response to growing political rhetoric around Native-themed mascots, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) released a statement earlier this year reaffirming its long-standing opposition.
“These depictions are not tributes — they are rooted in racism, cultural appropriation, and intentional ignorance,” the NCAI said. “For too long, they have perpetuated harmful stereotypes that degrade, dehumanize, and visit harm on the wellbeing of Native peoples.”
