Trump threatens to hold up stadium
deal if Washington Commanders don't switch back to Redskins
[July 21, 2025]
By JOE REEDY and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON
CLEVELAND (AP) — President Donald Trump is threatening to hold up a
new stadium deal for Washington's NFL team if it does not restore
its old name of the Redskins, which was considered offensive to
Native Americans.
Trump also said Sunday that he wants Cleveland's baseball team to
revert to its former name, the Indians, saying there was a “big
clamoring for this" as well.
The Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians have had their
current names since the 2022 seasons and both have said they have no
plans to change them back.
Trump said the Washington football team would be “much more
valuable” if it restored its old name.
“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 on his social
media site.
His latest interest in changing the name reflects his broader effort
to roll back changes that followed a national debate on cultural
sensitivity and racial justice. The team announced it would drop the
Redskins name and the Indian head logo in 2020 during a broader
reckoning with systemic racism and police brutality.
The Commanders and the District of Columbia government announced a
deal earlier this year to build a new home for the football team at
the site the old RFK Stadium, the place the franchise called home
for more than three decades.
Trump's ability to hold up the deal remains to be seen. President
Joe Biden signed a bill in January that transferred the land from
the federal government to the District of Columbia.
The provision was part of a short-term spending bill passed by
Congress in December. While D.C. residents elect a mayor, a city
council and commissioners to run day-to-day operations, Congress
maintains control of the city’s budget.
Josh Harris, whose group bought the Commanders from former owner Dan
Snyder in 2023, said earlier this year the name was here to stay.
Not long after taking over, Harris quieted speculation about going
back to Redskins, saying that would not happen. The team did not
immediately respond to a request for comment following Trump's
statement.
The Washington team started in Boston as the Redskins in 1933 before
moving to the nation’s capital four years later.
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Washington Commanders jerseys are displayed at an event to unveil
the NFL football team's new identity, Feb. 2, 2022, in Landover, Md.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, file)
The Cleveland Guardians' president of baseball
operations, Chris Antonetti, indicated before Sunday's game against
the Athletics that there weren't any plans to revisit the name
change.
“We understand there are different perspectives on the decision we
made a few years ago, but obviously it’s a decision we made. We’ve
got the opportunity to build a brand as the Guardians over the last
four years and are excited about the future that's in front of us,"
he said.
Cleveland announced in December 2020 it would drop Indians. It
announced the switch to Guardians in July 2021. In 2018, the team
phased out "Chief Wahoo” as its primary logo.
The name changes had their share of supporters and critics as part
of the national discussions about logos and names considered racist.
Trump posted Sunday afternoon that “The Owner of the Cleveland
Baseball Team, Matt Dolan, who is very political, has lost three
Elections in a row because of that ridiculous name change. What he
doesn’t understand is that if he changed the name back to the
Cleveland Indians, he might actually win an Election. Indians are
being treated very unfairly. MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!”
Matt Dolan, the son of the late Larry Dolan, no longer has a role
with the Guardians. He ran the team's charity endeavors until 2016.
Matt Dolan was a candidate in the Ohio U.S. Senate elections in 2022
and '24, but lost.
Washington and Cleveland share another thing in common. David
Blitzer is a member of Harris’ ownership group with the Commanders
and holds a minority stake in the Guardians.
___
Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
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