Trump Blasted After Threatening The Washington Commanders If They Don't Change Back To Racist Name

With very little of interest going on in the United States, and with all of his campaign promises fulfilled—Americans can enjoy inexpensive eggs while they read the Epstein files—MAGA Republican President Donald Trump decided to tackle the most important issue left.

The dwindling levels of overt racism in sports.

Schools, amateur leagues, and professional sports leagues eliminating Indigenous American-themed racist names, logos, and mascots is the national crisis foremost on everyone's mind...according to Trump.

Not the continued use of the mocking, homogenous, inaccurate, damaging caricatures of Indigenous peoples that the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) requested be stopped with a resolution in 1998, but rather their discontinuation is bothering not just non-Indigenous people, but "Indians", too, per POTUS.

On Sunday, Trump took to his own social media platform to post:

"The Washington 'Whatever’s' should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington [R-word] Football Team. 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!!!"

  @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social

That afternoon, Trump added:

"My statement on the Washington [R-words] has totally blown up, but only in a very positive way. I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original 'Washington [R-words],' 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. 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. Indians are being treated very unfairly. MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!"

  @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social

Oddly, Trump sang a very different tune about Presidents advising sports teams on their names back in 2013.

Back then, Trump took exception to the first Black President weighing in on a question about racism. After all, what would Democratic President Barack Obama know about that subject?

  @realDonaldTrump/Twitter

But that was almost 12 years ago, the 79-year-old POTUS can't possibly remember his tweets or his thoughts.

Trump's Indigenous acquaintances are Oklahoma MAGA Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, his one Indigenous appointee—Republican strategist William “Billy” Kirkland III, whom Trump tapped as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, as well as...

That's pretty much it.

However, there's a well-documented history of racism by Trump against Indigenous peoples. Trump's claim that he has his finger on the pulse of Indian Country, that he knows what Indigenous people think or want, was laughable at best.

Frankly, no one was buying the tataŋka čheslí (🦬💩) Trump was selling, seeing it for the distraction it was.

  @@deanobeidallah/Bluesky

  @trin_gata/Threads

  @NoOrangeClown/X

However, some creative minds found alternatives for the Washington Commanders to consider if Trump insists they change their name.

  @thesnarktank/Bluesky

The Association on American Indian Affairs issued a statement with the hashtag #NotYourMascot, writing:

"The President’s recent remarks about bringing back offensive Native 'themed' team names are a distraction from the real harm his administration continues to inflict on Native Peoples."

"There is no genuine respect for Native Nations here—only empty gestures and political theater.You can’t claim 'Indians are being treated very unfairly' while cutting Native healthcare, threatening Medicaid for Native children, defunding Tribal colleges, firing staff who serve Native programs, and opening Sacred places to industry."

"This isn’t about restoring 'heritage and prestige'."

"It’s about erasure — cultural, political, and literal."

In addition to the NCAI resolution against the use of Indigenous people as mascots, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights "called for an end to the use of Native American mascots in non-Native schools because they teach all students that stereotyping of minority students is acceptable."

The American Psychological Association called for "the immediate retirement of all American Indian mascots," saying these "mascots are teaching misleading, and too often, insulting images of American Indians. These negative lessons are not just affecting American Indian students; they are sending the wrong message to all students."

Indigenous-themed mascots are also opposed by the National Indian Education Association, National Education Association, American Sociological Association, American Counseling Association, NAACP, United Methodist Church, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association to name only a few of many organizations who disagree with Trump’s claims of mascots honoring or helping Indigenous people.

There's no honor in racism.