Trump threatens to hold up stadium deal if Washington Commanders don’t switch back to former name

By JOE REEDY and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON The Associated Press CLEVELAND President Donald Trump is threatening to hold up a new stadium deal for Washington s NFL unit if it does not restore its old name of the Redskins which was considered offensive to Native Americans Trump also stated Sunday that he wants Cleveland s baseball gang to revert to its former name the Indians saying there was a big clamoring for this as well The Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians have had their current names since the seasons and both have reported they have no plans to change them back Trump disclosed the Washington football organization would be much more valuable if it restored its old name I may put a restriction on them 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 Trump stated on his social media site His latest interest in changing the name reflects his broader effort to roll back changes that followed a national debate on cultural sensitivity and racial justice The organization informed it would drop the Redskins name and the Indian head logo in during a broader reckoning with systemic racism and police brutality The Commanders and the District of Columbia administration disclosed a deal earlier this year to build a new home for the football squad at the site the old RFK Stadium the place the franchise called home for more than three decades Trump s ability to hold up the deal remains to be seen President Joe Biden signed a bill in January that transferred the land from the federal governing body to the District of Columbia The provision was part of a short-term spending bill passed by Congress in December While D C residents elect a mayor a city council and commissioners to run day-to-day operations Congress maintains control of the city s budget Josh Harris whose group bought the Commanders from former owner Dan Snyder in stated earlier this year the name was here to stay Not long after taking over Harris quieted speculation about going back to Redskins saying that would not happen The organization did not forthwith respond to a request for comment following Trump s message The Washington crew started in Boston as the Redskins in before moving to the nation s capital four years later The Cleveland Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti indicated before Sunday s meeting against the Athletics that there weren t any plans to revisit the name change We understand there are different perspectives on the decision we made a sparse years ago but obviously it s a decision we made We ve got the opportunity to build a brand as the Guardians over the last four years and are excited about the future that s in front of us he revealed Cleveland revealed in December it would drop Indians It released the switch to Guardians in July In the unit phased out Chief Wahoo as its primary logo The name changes had their share of supporters and critics as part of the national discussions about logos and names considered racist Trump posted Sunday afternoon that The Owner of the Cleveland Baseball Unit 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 truly win an Balloting Indians are being treated very unfairly MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN MIGA Matt Dolan the son of the late Larry Dolan no longer has a role with the Guardians He ran the squad s charity endeavors until Matt Dolan was a candidate in the Ohio U S Senate elections in and but lost Washington and Cleveland share another thing in common David Blitzer is a member of Harris ownership group with the Commanders and holds a minority stake in the Guardians AP sports https apnews com sports