Amid ICE raids, tariff tumult, health concerns and increasing anger about his alleged ties to predator Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump is keeping his eyes on culture wars.
In a Sunday morning post on Truth Social, the president wrote, “The Washington ‘Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team. There is a big clamoring for this. Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past.”
Both football’s Washington Commanders and baseball’s Cleveland Guardians walked away from their controversial old names in the wake of the 2020 racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd.
The moves were a culmination of yearslong campaigns by Native American groups and advocates who argued team names evoked harmful stereotypes of Indigenous savagery along with logos that were often offensive caricatures.
But in his post, Trump claimed that public sentiment had since shifted and even Native communities were asking for the teams to reverse course.
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“Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen,” his post went on, saying, “Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them.”
“Times are different now than they were three or four years ago,” Trump continued. “We are a Country of passion and common sense. OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!”
The president made similar comments earlier this month when asked about the Commanders’ old identity.
“I wouldn’t have changed the name. It just doesn’t have the same, it doesn’t have the same ring to me,” he told a reporter.
Washington D.C.’s football team dropped the Redskins name in July 2020 and rechristened itself as the Commanders in February 2022.
But when members of congress approved a bill paving the way for Washington to build a new stadium last November, it reportedly came with a condition they bring back its former mascot, which was based off the image of real-life Piegan Blackfeet Chief John Two Guns White Calf.
While there have been some discussions about reviving the logo, the Commanders’ front office has said there was no chance the team would be returning to its racist old name.
In 2023, the club’s then-president, Jason Wright, told Washington radio station 106.7 The Fan: “Going back to the old name is not being considered. Period.”
One year later, Commanders owner Josh Harris said that reviving the old team name was a nonstarter for “obvious reasons.”
Cleveland’s baseball team ditched its controversial logo, a smiling crimson-faced man named “Chief Wahoo,” in 2018, but it took another two years to walk away from The Indians moniker. The organization renamed itself The Guardians a year later.