United States President Donald Trump spoke on a sports topic when he took to social media on Sunday morning. In a post on Truth Social, he called for both the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians to reverse the name changes that they’ve undergone in the past five years.
Donald Trump Calls For Return Of “Redskins” and “Indians”
Trump started off the post by mocking the Commanders. He referred to them as the “Washington ‘Whatevers’”, and stated that they should change their name back to “Redskins” immediately.
The franchise dropped the Native American reference back in 2020 due to a growing consensus that the name was considered offensive. They were called the “Washington Football Team” for two seasons before settling on “Commanders” as a nickname.
Trump has spoken on the topic before, especially given the proximity of the team to the White House itself.
President Donald Trump wants the Redskins name to return.
He posted this statement today about Washington’s NFL team name. pic.twitter.com/IvMTpWRJda
— Scott Abraham (@Scott7news) July 20, 2025
But he didn’t limit his outcry to just the football team. In the Truth Social post, Donald Trump called for the same action to be taken with the Cleveland Guardians, who dropped the “Indians” moniker after the 2021 MLB season. He said that the “great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen”, and claimed that heritage was being stolen from them because of the name change.
As early as 2018, the then-Cleveland Indians began to phase out their logo of “Chief Wahoo”, as it was seen as something of a racist caricature. It took them until 2022 to officially change their name, though, and have been known as the Guardians ever since.
Will Either Team Consider The President’s Request?
It doesn’t seem like either team is considering the possibility laid forth by Donald Trump. The Commanders have publically stated that they have no intentions to return to their former name, and Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti responded directly to the President’s comments before Sunday’s game.
“We understand there are different perspectives on the decision we made a few years ago,” he said. “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.”
