A view of the Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Stadium, defunct and at present below demolition, in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 2025. President Trump is threatening to intervene in a deal for a brand new stadium.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
President Trump is threatening to derail a plan to construct a brand new stadium in Washington, D.C., for the Washington Commanders soccer group until the group adjustments its title again to the earlier title.
“The Washington ‘No matter’s’ ought to instantly change their title again to the Washington Redskins Soccer Staff,” Trump wrote on his Reality Social account. “There’s a massive clamoring for this.”
The soccer group dropped the longtime title in 2020 after a few years of criticism that it was racist towards Indigenous folks.
Trump additionally known as for the Cleveland Guardians baseball group to vary their title again to the Cleveland Indians. That title change was introduced in 2021.
“Our nice Indian folks, in large numbers, need this to occur,” Trump wrote, with out providing proof. “Our nice Indian folks, in large numbers, need this to occur. Their heritage and status is systematically being taken away from them.”
Suzan Harjo, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes who fought for many years to get the group’s title modified, informed NPR in 2022 that the “R-word” was related to racist attitudes that perpetuated “emotional and bodily violence” in opposition to Native People. “Once I was a woman, you barely might make it by way of your younger life with out getting attacked by a bunch of white folks — whether or not they have been boys or women or males or girls. And they might at all times go to that phrase,” she stated.
In a later submit, Trump threatened to scuttle the Commanders’ plans for a brand new stadium, which might transfer the group from its present location in Maryland again to the nation’s capital after renovating an antiquated stadium on federal property.
“I’ll put a restriction on them if they do not change the title again to the unique ‘Washington Redskins,’ and eliminate the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I will not make a deal for them to construct a stadium in Washington,” Trump wrote.
Congress gave the town management over the positioning of the proposed new stadium final December, which former President Joe Biden signed into regulation in January. The D.C. Council is now contemplating a multibillion-dollar plan to redevelop the property for the group. It is unclear how Trump might intervene with the undertaking.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s workplace stated in an e-mail that the mayor had no remark. The Commanders didn’t instantly reply to NPR’s request for remark. The Cleveland Guardians declined remark.
