Trump Tells Washington Commanders To Un-Woke Their Name If They Want A New Stadium

President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to block the Washington Commanders organization from building a new stadium in its home city unless it reverts to its former name “Redskins.”

The president also called on the Cleveland Guardians to changes its name, as well, and reimbrace “Indians,” which it dropped in 2021. Washington dropped its “Redskins” name the previous year in 2020.

“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!!!” the president posted on Sunday morning.

In a follow-up post on Sunday afternoon, the president made his threat against the NFL’s Washington Commanders and mocked Matt Dolan, who has a partial stake in the MLB’s Guardians, for losing elections.

“I may put a restriction on [the Commanders organization] that 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. The Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone,” said Trump.

The Commanders organization is currently negotiating with the city of Washington, D.C., to build a new stadium on federal land at the site of RFK Stadium. In a legislative coup for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Congress in December turned over administrative control of the RFK site to the city government.

“Cleveland should do the same with the Cleveland Indians. The Owner of the Cleveland Baseball Team, Matt Dolan, who is very political, has lost three Elections in a row because of that ridiculous name change. What he doesn’t understand is that if he changed the name back to the Cleveland Indians, he might actually win an Election,” the president continued. “Indians are being treated very unfairly. MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!”

Dolan’s brother, Paul, is the primary owner of the Cleveland Guardians. Dolan has served in the Ohio House of Representatives and state Senate. He lost two bids for U.S. Senate – in 2022 in the GOP primary against Vice President J.D. Vance and in 2024 in the GOP primary against Sen. Bernie Moreno.

Cleveland Guardians team president Chris Antonetti respond to the president’s directive on Sunday, saying that the team had no plans to change its name back.

“Not something I’m tracking or paying a lot of attention to, but I would say generally, I understand there are very different perspectives on the decision we made a few years ago,” Antonetti said, according to The Athletic. “But it’s a decision we made and we’ve gotten the opportunity to build the brand as the Guardians over the last four years and we’re excited about the future that’s in front of us.”