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\u2019t change
the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid
of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won\u2019t 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday tointerfere with a deal to build a new football stadium inWashington, D.C., unless the local NFL team, now known as theCommanders, changes its name back to Redskins.The American football team dropped the name Redskins in 2020after decades of criticism that it was a racial slur with linksto the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n