Trump threatens to hold up stadium deal if Washington Commanders don't switch back to Redskins
Trump also said Sunday that he wants Cleveland's baseball team 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 2022 seasons and both have said they have no plans to change them back.
Trump said the Washington football team 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 said 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 team announced it would drop the Redskins name and the Indian head logo in 2020 during a broader reckoning with systemic racism and police brutality.
The Commanders and the District of Columbia government announced a deal earlier this year to build a new home for the football team 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 government to the District of Columbia.
The provision was part of a short-term spending bill passed by Congress in December. While Washington 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 2023, said 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 team did not immediately respond to a request for comment following Trump's statement.
The Washington team started in Boston as the Redskins in 1933 before moving to the nation's capital four years later.
The Cleveland Guardians' president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, indicated before Sunday's game 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 few 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 said.
Cleveland announced in December 2020 it would drop Indians. It announced the switch to Guardians in July 2021. In 2018, the team 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 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)!"
Matt Dolan, the son of the late Larry Dolan, no longer has a role with the Guardians. He ran the team's charity endeavors until 2016.
Matt Dolan was a candidate in the Ohio US Senate elections in 2022 and '24, 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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
4 minutes ago
- Korea Herald
Russia launches major aerial attack on Kyiv
Russia unleashed one of its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months hours before Britain and Germany chaired a meeting Monday to discuss US President Donald Trump's plans for NATO allies to provide Ukraine with weapons. The drone and missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, killed two people and wounded 15, including a 12-year-old, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The deadly assault underscored the urgency of Ukraine's need for further Western military aid, especially in air defense, a week after Trump said deliveries would arrive in Ukraine within days. A drone struck the entrance to a subway station in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district where people had taken cover. Videos posted on social media showed the station platform engulfed by smoke, with dozens inside. The heaviest strikes hit the city's Darnytskyi district, where a kindergarten, supermarket and warehouse facilities caught fire. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who arrived in Kyiv on Monday for talks with Zelenskyy, visited some of the damaged area. Zelenskyy and Barrot spoke about expanding defense cooperation, including a decision by French companies to start manufacturing drones in Ukraine, and advancing Ukraine's path toward European Union membership, the Ukrainian leader said on social media. The virtual meeting of high-level military officials was led by British Defense Secretary John Healey and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and NATO leader Mark Rutte, as well as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, attended the so-called Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting. Moscow has intensified its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate as Russian drone production expands. Ukraine's new Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal urged allies to speed up deliveries of American air defense systems under the plan put forward by Trump. 'I request the US to make these weapons available for purchase, and our European partners to extend all the needed financing for their procurement,' Shmyhal, who until recently served as prime minister, told the meeting. Trump's arms plan, announced a week ago, involves European nations sending American weapons, including Patriot air defense missile systems, to Ukraine via NATO — either from existing stockpiles or buying and donating new ones. In an shift of tone toward Russia, Trump last week gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face tougher sanctions. At Monday's meeting, Healey was expected to urge Ukraine's Western partners to launch a '50-day drive' to get Kyiv the weapons it needs to fight Russia's bigger army and force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, the UK government said in a statement. NATO's Grynkewich told The Associated Press on Thursday that 'preparations are underway' for weapons transfers to Ukraine while US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said he couldn't give a time frame. European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius visited Washington on Monday ahead of talks with US officials about European defense and support for Ukraine. Kubilius told reporters he welcomed Trump taking a harder line on Putin, calling it 'a new opening in how we can support Ukraine.' 'If you combine American economic power and European economic power we are something like 20 times Russia's power,' he said. 'We need political will.' Germany has said it offered to finance two new Patriot systems for Ukraine and raised the possibility of supplying systems it already owns and having them replaced by the US. But delivery could take time, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested, because 'they have to be transported, they have to be set up; that is not a question of hours, it is a question of days, perhaps weeks." Other Patriot systems could come thanks to Switzerland, whose defense ministry said Thursday it was informed by the US Defense Department that it will 'reprioritize the delivery" of five previously ordered systems to support Ukraine. While Ukraine waits for Patriots, a senior NATO official said the alliance is still coordinating the delivery of other military aid — such as ammunition and artillery rounds — which includes aid from the US that was briefly paused. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. In a video address, Zelenskyy said another round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations was planned for Wednesday. He said he discussed the preparations with Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian team in the previous two rounds, but didn't give further details. The previous negotiations were held in Istanbul, and Russian media reports said it would likely remain the host city. The talks in May and June led to a series of exchanges of prisoners of war but produced no other agreements. The overnight Russian barrage of Kyiv began shortly after midnight and continued until around 6 a.m. Residents were kept awake by machine-gun fire, buzzing drone engines and multiple loud explosions. It was the first major attack on Kyiv since Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, arrived in the city last Monday. Russia halted strikes during his visit. Russia's Ministry of Defense said its attack used drones and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. It said the barrage successfully targeted airfield infrastructure and Ukraine's military-industrial complex. Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 426 Shahed and decoy drones overnight and on Monday, as well as 24 missiles of various types. It said 200 drones were intercepted with 203 more jammed or lost from radars. Ukraine, meanwhile, continued to deploy its domestically produced long-range drones. Russia's Ministry of Defense said its forces shot down 74 Ukrainian drones overnight, almost a third of them destroyed close to the Russian capital. Twenty-three drones were shot down in the Moscow region, the ministry said, 15 of which were intercepted over the city itself. (AP)
Korea Herald
4 minutes ago
- Korea Herald
Vice minister reiterates efforts to minimize export risks amid US tariff uncertainties
The government will work to successfully conclude tariff negotiations with the United States to minimize risks for export companies, the first vice industry minister said Tuesday. "Our export companies are facing heightened uncertainties ahead of the imposition of US reciprocal tariffs on Aug. 1," First Vice Industry Minister Moon Shin-hak said in a meeting to review export trends. "During the remaining period, the government will make every effort to smoothly conclude tariff negotiations with the US in a way that maximizes national interest," he added, referring to the Aug. 1 deadline when the US will start imposing 25 percent reciprocal tariffs on South Korean products. South Korea's exports shrank 2.2 percent from a year earlier to $36.1 billion in the first 20 days of this month, data from the Korea Customs Service showed earlier. Outbound shipments to the US fell 2.1 percent on-year to $6.42 billion, weighed down by sweeping tariff measures by US President Donald Trump's administration. By item, steel exports dropped 9.7 percent to $2.39 billion, apparently affected by the administration's 50 percent tariffs on all steel imports. Exports of petroleum and petrochemical products slid 17.5 percent and 13.9 percent to $2.52 billion and $2.36 billion, respectively, amid a decline in global oil prices. On the other hand, exports of semiconductors increased 16.5 percent on-year to $7.89 billion, and auto exports expanded 3.9 percent to $3.63 billion.
Korea Herald
34 minutes ago
- Korea Herald
Trump administration releases FBI records on MLK Jr. despite his family's opposition
The Trump administration on Monday released records of the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate's family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination. The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. In a lengthy statement released Monday, King's two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father's killing has been a "captivating public curiosity for decades." But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter and urged that the files "be viewed within their full historical context." The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access. Among the documents are leads the FBI received after King's assassination and details of the CIA's fixation on King's pivot to international anti-war and anti-poverty movements in the years before he was killed. It was not immediately clear whether the documents shed new light on King's life, the Civil Rights Movement or his murder. "As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met -- an absence our family has endured for over 57 years," they wrote. "We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief." They also repeated the family's long-held contention that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, if at all. Bernice King was 5 years old when her father was killed at the age of 39. Martin III was 10. A statement from the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure "unprecedented" and said many of the records had been digitized for the first time. She praised President Donald Trump for pushing the issue. Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with those associated with Robert F. Kennedy's and MLK's 1968 assassinations. The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April. The announcement from Gabbard's office included a statement from Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, who is an outspoken conservative and has broken from King's children on various topics — including the FBI files. Alveda King said she was "grateful to President Trump" for his "transparency." Separately, Attorney General Pam Bondi's social media account featured a picture of the attorney general with Alveda King. Besides fulfilling Trump's order, the latest release means another alternative headline for the president as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration's handling of records concerning the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019, during Trump's first presidency. Trump last Friday ordered the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III did not mention Trump in their statement Monday. But Bernice King later posted on her personal Instagram account a black-and-white photo of her father, looking annoyed, with the caption "Now, do the Epstein files." And some civil rights activists did not spare the president. "Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "It's a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the MAGA base." The King Center, founded by King's widow and now led by Bernice King, reacted separately from what Bernice said jointly with her brother. The King Center statement framed the release as a distraction — but from more than short-term political controversy. "It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society," the King Center, linking those challenges to MLK's efforts. "This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace." The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order early. Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents for new information about his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the Civil Rights Movement blossomed, opposed the release. The group, along with King's family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, hoping to discredit them and their movement. It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover's bureau wiretapped King's telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to gather information, including evidence of King's extramarital affairs. "He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation," the King children said in their statement. "The intent ... was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King's reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement," they continued. "These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo." The Kings said they "support transparency and historical accountability" but "object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods." Opposition to King intensified even after the Civil Rights Movement compelled Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After those victories, King turned his attention to economic justice and international peace. He criticized rapacious capitalism and the Vietnam War. King asserted that political rights alone were not enough to ensure a just society. Many establishment figures like Hoover viewed King as a communist threat. King was assassinated as he was aiding striking sanitation workers in Memphis, part of his explicit turn toward economic justice. Ray pleaded guilty to King's murder. Ray later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998. King family members and others have long questioned whether Ray acted alone, or if he was even involved. Coretta Scott King asked for the probe to be reopened, and in 1998, then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a new look. Reno's Justice Department said it "found nothing to disturb the 1969 judicial determination that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King." In their latest statement, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III repeated their assertions that Ray was set up. They pointed to a 1999 civil case, brought by the King family, in which a Memphis jury concluded that Martin Luther King Jr. had been the target of a conspiracy.
