Trump: "There will be no Commanders stadium without the Redskins name"

One day after Donald Trump threatened to block a deal for a new football stadium in the U.S. capital if the Washington Commanders didn't revert to the Redskins name, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president's comments were not a joke.

“The president was serious,” Leavitt told reporters yesterday while answering questions on the White House porch.

Donald Trump said Sunday that the Washington Commanders football team should "immediately" return to their controversial original name, the Redskins, which they changed in 2020 due to its racist connotations toward Native Americans.

“The Washington Whatevers should IMMEDIATELY change their name to the Washington Redskins. There is a huge outcry for this,” the president wrote on his Truth Social network.

Trump insisted that “the same is true of the Cleveland Indians, one of the original six baseball teams, with a storied past.”

In 2021, the iconic team became known as the Cleveland Guardians, also in response to pressure from social justice movements across the country.

Trump threatened the Commanders with impeding negotiations for the franchise's return to the capital city. "If you don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins' and get rid of the absurd 'Washington Commanders' nickname, I will not make any deal for you to build a stadium in Washington."— AP and EFE