U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to interfere with a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., unless the local NFL team, now known as the Commanders, changes its name back to Redskins.
The American football team dropped the name Redskins in 2020 after decades of criticism that it was a racial slur with links to the U.S. genocide of the Indigenous population.
Trump had called for a return to the name Redskins – and for the Cleveland Guardians baseball team to once again adopt the name Indians – on other occasions, but on Sunday he added that he may take official action.
“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 in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The team moved from Washington to suburban Landover, Maryland, in 1997, but earlier this year reached an agreement with the local District of Columbia government to return to the city with a new stadium expected to open in 2030.
Trump has limited authority to intervene under the current home-rule law governing federal oversight of the District of Columbia, but he has raised the prospect of taking more control, telling reporters in February, “I think we should take over Washington, D.C.”
Representatives of the Commanders did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some fans have advocated readopting the name Redskins out of tradition, but leading Indigenous rights organizations have opposed the name, including the National Congress of American Indians, the Association on American Indian Affairs, and Cultural Survival.
At least one group, the Native American Guardian’s Association, has supported the name Redskins and the “respectful use of Native American names and imagery in sports, education and public life.”- REUTERS
