Trump Threatens Stadium Deal Unless Commanders Revert Name

Boy, President Trump keeps finding new and inventive ways to be racist. On Sunday, Trump threatened to overturn the Washington Commanders stadium deal if they don’t revert to their old, incredibly racist name. 

According to NBC News, Trump made the threat across several posts on Truth Social. “The Washington ‘Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team,” Trump wrote. “I may put a restriction on them 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.”

While this sounds like yet another instance of Trump weaponizing executive power to target anything he perceives as “woke,” it’s unclear how, if at all, Trump would be able to prevent a stadium deal from going through. The Washington Commanders currently play at Northwest Stadium in Maryland and are eyeing a return to D.C. once the District council finalizes a deal to build a new stadium on the grounds of the defunct RFK Stadium. The Washington Commanders played at RFK Stadium from 1961–1996, so this would be a true homecoming for the team.  

The stadium grounds were originally controlled by the federal government, but President Biden signed a law in December reverting control of the stadium grounds to the District for 99 years. There has been some acrimony around the new stadium, with several officials wanting the District to hurry up and finalize a plan, but with control out of the federal government’s hands, there doesn’t seem to be a clear path for Trump to thwart the deal. 

That fact didn’t seem to stop Trump from continuing to rant about the need for the Washington Commanders to change their name. 

“There is a big clamoring for this. Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past. Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago. We are a Country of passion and common sense. OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!” Trump added. 

It’s odd Trump is trying to position this as something Native Americans want, considering “redskin” is a slur and there were several Native-led campaigns petitioning the team to retire the name. Additionally, Natives aren’t Indians…they’re Native Americans. There’s Comanche, Apache, Yavapai, but last I checked, there isn’t an Indian tribe because Indians, believe it or not, are from India.

It’s doubly odd that Trump mentions their heritage being “systemically taken away from them” when he is the system. Dude straight up revoked several national monuments designed to protect Native land and is actively trying to withhold $24 billion in funding for Native communities through a federal grant freeze. 

His big idea to make the Native community think he’s on their side is having the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians revert to their old, incredibly racist names? For someone who ran on “protecting free speech,” he really doesn’t have much respect for speech that isn’t actively racist. 

For their parts, representatives from both the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians have shut down conversations about reverting their names.

“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,” Chris Antonetti, Guardians president of baseball operations, told reporters ahead of the Guardians game on Sunday. 

Washington Commanders Owner Josh Harris, who purchased the team in 2023, reiterated earlier this year that the team won’t change their name. “I think it’s now embraced by our team, by our culture, by our coaching staff. So we’re going with that,” Harris said in a postgame interview in February.

So for now, this can be filed as yet another weird, racist rant from America’s weird, racist president. 

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Trump Threatens Stadium Deal Unless Washington Commanders Revert Name  was originally published on newsone.com