Amid ICE raids, tariff tumult, well being considerations and growing anger about his alleged ties to predator Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump is maintaining his eyes on tradition wars.
In a Sunday morning submit on Fact Social, the president wrote, “The Washington ‘Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team. There is a big clamoring for this. Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past.”
Each soccer’s Washington Commanders and baseball’s Cleveland Guardians walked away from their controversial outdated names within the wake of the 2020 racial reckoning sparked by the homicide of George Floyd.
The strikes have been a fruits of yearslong campaigns by Native American teams and advocates who argued staff names evoked dangerous stereotypes of Indigenous savagery together with logos that have been typically offensive caricatures.
However in his submit, Trump claimed that public sentiment had since shifted and even Native communities have been asking for the groups to reverse course.
Bloomberg through Getty Pictures
“Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen,” his submit went on, saying, “Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them.”
“Times are different now than they were three or four years ago,” Trump continued. “We are a Country of passion and common sense. OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!”
The president made comparable feedback earlier this month when requested in regards to the Commanders’ outdated identification.
“I wouldn’t have changed the name. It just doesn’t have the same, it doesn’t have the same ring to me,” he advised a reporter.
Washington D.C.’s soccer staff dropped the Redskins identify in July 2020 and rechristened itself because the Commanders in February 2022.
However when members of congress permitted a invoice paving the best way for Washington to construct a brand new stadium final November, it reportedly got here with a situation they convey again its former mascot, which was primarily based on the picture of real-life Piegan Blackfeet Chief John Two Weapons White Calf.
Whereas there have been some discussions about reviving the brand, the Commanders’ entrance workplace has stated there was no likelihood the staff can be returning to its racist outdated identify.
In 2023, the membership’s then-president, Jason Wright, advised Washington radio station 106.7 The Fan: “Going back to the old name is not being considered. Period.”
One 12 months later, Commanders proprietor Josh Harris stated that reviving the outdated staff identify was a nonstarter for “obvious reasons.”
Cleveland’s baseball staff ditched its controversial brand, a smiling crimson-faced man named “Chief Wahoo,” in 2018, but it surely took one other two years to stroll away from The Indians moniker. The group renamed itself The Guardians a 12 months later.
