Donald Trump wants to bring back the Washington Redskins, the ‘offensive’ team name that was scrapped by the American capital city’s NFL franchise in 2020.
Trump was in the White House when the Redskins name was originally changed, on the back’s of the George Floyd protests during the final summer of his first term in the Oval Office.
Former owner Dan Snyder was forced to make the change, originally to the Washington Football Team for two seasons, when sponsors like Nike and Amazon threatened to boycott the team without a switch.
In 2022, the team was re-branded as the Washington Commanders, with the fan base unhappy with the final result of the new moniker for years.
Now, Trump, who has a checkered history with the NFL, has weighed in on the gridiron franchise’s new name, with it playing home games less than 15 miles from the White House.
‘Well, you want me to make a controversial statement? I would,’ Trump said when asked if the Commanders should change their name back to the Redskins. ‘I wouldn’t have changed the name.’
Donald Trump wants to bring back the Washington Redskins team to the NFL franchise
The ‘offensive’ team name was scrapped in 2020 and later changed to the Commanders
‘It doesn’t have the same ring to me. Winning can make everything sound good. So if they win, all of the sudden, the Commanders sounds good. But I wouldn’t have changed the name.’
In 2016, the Washington Post found that only one in every 10 Native Americans were offended by the Redskins’ moniker.
In recent months, the team has attempted to combine the old and the new, including a logo of a Commanders-style W with a feather coming out from it, part of the iconic Redskins design.
Trump’s claim about winning is a decent shout, as no Commanders fan was unhappy to embrace the team’s best season in 30 years in 2024.
Washington made the NFC Championship Game with rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels before falling to eventual Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Expectations are as high for the Washington football franchise heading into a season as they have been since George H.W. Bush was in the Oval Office, six Presidential administrations ago.
Other teams in professional sports have stayed tied to their Native American-adjacent nicknames, including the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Braves.
The Cleveland Guardians rose from being the Cleveland Indians, in a move that was much more popular out of the gate in Ohio than the two changes in Washington.
Last year, Jayden Daniels led the Commanders to their best season in more than 30 years
Fans have hoped under the team’s new ownership to see a return to the Redskins nickname
Following decades of demands to change the name, former owner Dan Snyder (L) dropped ‘Redskins’ in 2020. New owner Josh Harris (R) has been asked by fans to change it back.
Trump was asked back in April, as the franchise negotiated a stadium deal to play home games once again within the District of Columbia, if a name change would be tied with any contract.
‘Now Washington, the Redskins, perhaps that’s a little different, a little different,’ he said. ‘I think it’s a superior name to what they have right now,’ he also volunteered.
He added that, ‘we’re about bringing common sense back to this country.’
Following Snyder’s sale of the franchise to Josh Harris, fans have lobbied the new owner to revert to the old name.
Additionally, the Native American Guardians ᴀssociation – an organization which vocally opposes the removal of Native American mascots – launched a peтιтion to bring the name back.
After Trump was re-elected, many fans hoped that he could somehow force the team or the NFL to bring the ‘Redskins’ name back.
However, as both the NFL and the Commanders are private businesses, Trump has no authority to force a name change.
