President Donald Trump has threatened the Washington’s commanders football team, stating that he will not provide an agreement so that the new team of the team was built in Washington, DC, if it does not return to its previous name.
“My statement about Washington Reskins has fully exploited, but only in a very positive way. I can put a restriction on them that if they do not change the name of the ‘Washington Redskins of Washington’, and getting rid of the ridicul Sunday.
The Washington commanders are shown in an event to present the new identity of the NFL football team, on February 2, 2022, in Landover, MD.
Patrick Semansky/AP
In another post on Sunday, Trump asked the commanders to “immediately” change their name.
“Their inheritance and prestige are being systematically removed. The times are different now that three or four years ago,” Trump wrote on his social networks platform.
ABC News has communicated with commanders to comment on Trump’s demands.
Trump also said that the Cleveland Guardians baseball team should also return to his old name, and called Ohio’s Senate candidate, Matt Dolan, team owner, claiming that he lost several elections due to the change of name.
“The owner of the Cleveland baseball team, Matt Dolan, who is very political, has lost three elections in a row due to that ridiculous change of name. What he does not understand is that if he changed the name to the Cleveland Indians, he could actually win an election. The Indians are being treated unfairly.
The president of baseball operations of the Cleveland Guardians, Chris Antonetti, said in a statement on Sunday that there has been no plans to change the name of the team, according to The Association press.
“We understand that there are different perspectives on the decision we made a few years ago, but it is obviously a decision we make. We have the opportunity to build a brand like the guardians in the last four years and are excited about the future that is in front of us,” said Antonetti.
The Guardians had no additional comments when ABC News asked him.
With the commanders, Josh Harris, the team’s managing partner, said at the beginning of this year that the team would not change its name, according to Associated Press.
Washington commanders launched their old name in July 2020 after years of complaints for their racist connotations towards the Native Americans. The team adopted the generic “Washington football team” two weeks later, although it was supposed to only be in its place for the 2020-21 season. Then, in 2022, the team revealed that its new name would be the Washington commanders.
A 2020 study from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, discovered that at least half of more than 1,000 American natives surveyed were offended by the previous name of the commanders team, according to UC Berkeley website.
The practice of using American native pets is controversial and many tribal leaders say it is dehumanizing and perpetuates stereotypes.
In 2024, the Senate approved a bipartisan bill with a unanimous consent that would allow the federal government to lease more than 170 acres of land at the site where the Robert F. Kennedy memorial stadium is currently located, which would allow to build the possibility that a new stadium was built. The team currently plays at the Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
The bill transfers the jurisdiction of the federal government stadium site to the local authorities of DC.
“We are extremely grateful that our elected officials have been bounded in a bipartisan way to give Washington, DC the opportunity to decide on the future of the RFK stadium site. This bill will create a field of play the same so that all possible future locations for the house of the Washington commanders can be considered and fairly giving us the opportunity to provide the best experience for all our fans,” he said in all our fans. a house in a home in a statement on December 21, 2024.
Lauren Peller and Mark Osborne of ABC News contributed to this report.
