Trump demands Guardians and Commanders revert to previous names out of respect for Native Americans | US sports

Donald Trump demanded in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the NFL’s Washington Commanders and MLB’s Cleveland Guardians revert to their old names, both of which were abandoned in recent years due to being racially insensitive to Native Americans.

“The Washington ‘Whatever’s’ [sic] should IMMEDIATELY change their name back,” the post read in part. “There is a big clamoring for this … 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.”

Hours later, Trump said in a separate post that he would move to block the Commanders’ plans to build a new stadium at the old RFK Stadium site in Washington DC unless they changed their name. It is unclear if Trump would be able to do so. Although the RFK Stadium site was once on federal land, Joe Biden signed a bill earlier this year – one of his final acts in office – transferring control to the DC city government for a 99-year term.

Trump also posted that the call to change names applied to Cleveland’s baseball team, which he called “One of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past.”

The concept of an “original six” does not exist in baseball, though it does in ice hockey. The Cleveland MLB team currently known as the Guardians began play in the late 1800s in a league with eight teams, before becoming one of the eight charter members of the modern American League in 1901. Like most baseball teams, the franchise has undergone numerous moves and moniker changes. Since arriving in Cleveland in 1900, the team was known as the Lakeshores (for one year), Bluebirds (in 1901), Broncos (in 1902), Naps (from 1903-1914), and Indians (from 1915-2021).

The last of those names was one of several across the world of US sports to draw criticism from Native Americans and others, with Cleveland attracting additional attention for its use of the “Chief Wahoo” mascot. These critiques persisted for decades until a broader national reckoning over the role of race in US culture spurned changes: Cleveland went from the Indians to the Guardians (named after art deco figures on a bridge near the team’s stadium), while Washington changed first to the generic Washington Football team in 2020 and then to the Commanders in 2022.

Washington’s NFL team, under previous owner Daniel Snyder, refused to change their name for many years despite the criticism. The team was sold to billionaire Josh Harris in 2023. The Guardians were owned by Larry Dolan from 2000 until his death in 2025, when control passed to his son Paul.

In his Truth Social post, Trump called on the team’s owners to “GET IT DONE!!!”

That seems unlikely. Since taking control of the Commanders, Harris has said he has no intention of changing the team’s name again. Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Guardians’ president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, said his team will retain its current name.

“We understand there are different perspectives on the decision we made a few years ago but obviously it’s a decision we made,” Antonetti said. “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.”