Donald Trump demanded in a Reality Social submit on Sunday that the NFL’s Washington Commanders and MLB’s Cleveland Guardians revert to their previous names, each of which have been deserted lately because of being racially insensitive to Native People.
“The Washington ‘No matter’s’ [sic] ought to IMMEDIATELY change their identify again,” the submit learn partially. “There’s a huge clamoring for this … Our nice Indian folks, in large numbers, need this to occur. Their heritage and status is systematically being taken away from them. Occasions are completely different now than they have been three or 4 years in the past.”
Hours later, Trump mentioned in a separate submit that he would transfer to dam the Commanders’ plans to construct a brand new stadium on the previous RFK Stadium website in Washington DC until they modified their identify. It’s unclear if Trump would have the ability to take action. Though the RFK Stadium website was as soon as on federal land, Joe Biden signed a invoice earlier this 12 months – considered one of his last acts in workplace – transferring management to the DC metropolis authorities for a 99-year time period.
Trump additionally posted that the decision to vary names utilized to Cleveland’s baseball group, which he known as “One of many six unique baseball groups, with a storied previous.”
The idea of an “unique six” doesn’t exist in baseball, although it does in ice hockey. The Cleveland MLB group at present often known as the Guardians started play within the late 1800s in a league with eight groups, earlier than changing into one of many eight constitution members of the trendy American League in 1901. Like most baseball groups, the franchise has undergone quite a few strikes and moniker modifications. Since arriving in Cleveland in 1900, the group was often known as the Lakeshores (for one 12 months), Bluebirds (in 1901), Broncos (in 1902), Naps (from 1903-1914), and Indians (from 1915-2021).
The final of these names was considered one of a number of the world over of US sports activities to attract criticism from Native People and others, with Cleveland attracting extra consideration for its use of the “Chief Wahoo” mascot. These critiques persevered for many years till a broader nationwide reckoning over the position of race in US tradition spurned modifications: Cleveland went from the Indians to the Guardians (named after artwork deco figures on a bridge close to the group’s stadium), whereas Washington modified first to the generic Washington Soccer group in 2020 after which to the Commanders in 2022.
Washington’s NFL group, beneath earlier proprietor Daniel Snyder, refused to vary their identify for a few years regardless of the criticism. The group was bought to billionaire Josh Harris in 2023. The Guardians have been owned by Larry Dolan from 2000 till his loss of life in 2025, when management handed to his son Paul.
In his Reality Social submit, Trump known as on the group’s homeowners to “GET IT DONE!!!”
That appears unlikely. Since taking management of the Commanders, Harris has mentioned he has no intention of fixing the group’s identify once more. In the meantime, on Sunday, the Guardians’ president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, mentioned his group will retain its present identify.
“We perceive there are completely different views on the choice we made a number of years in the past however clearly it’s a call we made,” Antonetti mentioned. “We’ve bought the chance to construct a model because the Guardians during the last 4 years and are excited in regards to the future that’s in entrance of us.”
