Trump Attacks Washington Commanders’ Politically Correct Team Name | The American Spectator

President Donald Trump on Sunday lambasted the Washington Commanders’ politically correct name change, threatening to halt the team’s new stadium deal with Washington, D.C., if they don’t restore the team’s original name. “The Washington ‘Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump argued that the practice of teams renaming themselves erases Native American heritage and reflects iconoclastic sentiments that have worn themselves out. “Their [Native Americans’] heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago,” he said. “We are a Country of passion and common sense. OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!”

The team hastily abandoned the Washington Redskins name in 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd protests, without a name to replace it. The team branded itself simply as the Washington Football Team until it eventually adopted the Commanders name in 2022.

In a second post, Trump threatened to stop the team’s new stadium deal to build at the RFK Memorial Stadium site in Washington, D.C, which would move the team from its current location in Maryland. The deal, announced in April 2025, is currently awaiting approval and negotiations from the D.C. Council.

Trump, ever the businessman, argued that “the Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone,” if the team gets “rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders.’”

Trump also called for the Cleveland Guardians to restore their original name of the Cleveland Indians. In response to Trump’s statements, the team’s president, Chris Antonetti, avoided attacking the Trump but maintained that the team would keep their new name: “It’s a decision we’ve made, and we’ve gotten the opportunity to build the brand as the Guardians over the last four years, and we’re excited about the future that’s in front of us.”

The posts over the weekend come after Trump tested the waters on the issue earlier this month while responding to a reporter’s question. “You want me to make a controversial statement?,” he asked. “I would [change the name back to the Redskins]. I wouldn’t have changed the name. … It just doesn’t have the same ring to me.”

At the time, he provided one caveat to his suggestion that the team needs to restore its original name: “Winning can make everything sound good. So if they win, all of a sudden the ‘Commanders’ sound good. But I wouldn’t have changed the name.”

Trump concluded his Sunday polemics against Indian erasure with the statement: “Indians are being treated very unfairly. MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!”

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