President Trump called on the NFL’s Washington Commanders to change their name back to the Washington Redskins on Sunday and threatened to upend the team’s deal for a new stadium if they didn’t.
Trump’s actual ability to impede the stadium deal is unclear. Former President Joe Biden signed a law in January that transferred ownership of the land for the new facility from the federal government to the District of Columbia.
Currently, construction on the new stadium is scheduled for completion in 2030. Until then, the Commanders will continue to play in Landover, Md., at Northwest Field.
Washington’s NFL team dropped the Redskins nickname in 2020. Critics lambasted it as a racist insult for Indigenous people. The team played two years as the Washington Football Team before announcing the Commanders nickname ahead of the 2023 season.
In Sunday’s post on his social media site, Trump also called for the Cleveland Guardians baseball team to change their name back to the Cleveland Indians. The Guardians announced that change in 2020 and finalized it ahead of the 2022 season.
Trump and other conservatives have long focused on rolling back changes that were implemented during the nationwide reckoning with systemic racism in 2020.
With News Wire Services
