Trump mixes sports and politics with Commanders name fight

The Hill

23-07-2025

President Trump has reignited the debate over the Washington Commanders team name, the latest example of the president using sports in his second term to expand his influence and impact on culture.
Trump upended what appeared to be a settled issue when he threatened to use the power of the presidency to hold up the Commanders' plans to build a new stadium in Washington, D.C., if the team did not revert to the Redskins name it retired in 2020.
While it came as a surprise to local leaders and team officials, it was yet another instance of Trump wading into sports for political purposes.
'Sports is one of the many passions of this president, and he wants to see the name of that team changed,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. 'I think you've seen the president gets involved in a lot of things that most presidents have not. He's a nontraditional president.'
The president has hosted championship hockey and baseball teams at the White House in his first six months in office. He has attended the Daytona 500, the Super Bowl, college wrestling championships, Ultimate Fighting Championship events and the FIFA Club World Cup championship.
Trump met in the Oval Office with members of Italian soccer club Juventus and the Boston Red Sox, taking credit when the latter team went on a winning streak after the meeting. The president also was at the center of an announcement that Washington will host the NFL draft in 2027. He was joined by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Commanders owner Josh Harris.
One source close to the White House noted Trump is a longtime sports fan and a former owner of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, which folded after three seasons.
Trump's interest in sports helps broaden his political appeal, the source argued, pointing to his 2023 stop at an Iowa State University fraternity where he threw footballs into the crowd, and his game of catch with baseball legend Mariano Rivera to mark the start of the season amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
But Trump's focus on sports has expanded into the policy arena during his second term.
Blocking transgender women from competing in men's sports was a defining campaign promise for Trump in 2024. Within weeks of taking office, Trump signed an executive order following through on that pledge.
The president has spoken frequently about the United States's role as a host for next year's FIFA World Cup, convening a task force to help plan for the logistically complex event that will put a spotlight on transportation infrastructure and the visa system to allow visiting fans and players into the country.
Trump's latest sports-related focus is on the Washington Commanders team name, an issue he has shared his opinion on dating back to 2013, when he scolded then-President Obama for weighing in on the controversial Redskins name.
It is also in line with Trump's broader war against what he deems to be 'woke' or politically correct culture, something that has been a major focus of his first six months in office.
Trump has in recent days demanded in comments to reporters and in posts on social media that the Commanders change their name back to the Redskins. If the team does not act — and ownership has repeatedly said the issue is settled — Trump has threatened to get in the way of a deal to build a new stadium in Washington.
'Times are different now than they were three or four years ago. We are a Country of passion and common sense,' Trump posted late Sunday on Truth Social.
It's not clear what authority Trump might have to thwart the stadium deal. The stadium agreement still needs the approval of the D.C. Council, which is set to hold hearings on the issue next week.
Bowser, the mayor of D.C., downplayed the suggestion that Trump's most recent fixation would ultimately derail a plan that has been bandied about for years.
'I've had the opportunity to speak on a couple of different occasions with the president about this site and about our team,' Bowser told ESPN. 'And I can say this without equivocation: He is a [quarterback] Jayden Daniels fan, and he said himself, and the presser we were at, that this is probably the best site of any site he's seen for a stadium. I have to think that that's what I've heard him say, and that's what we'll stick with.'
Trump-DeSantis feud simmers
Has the most bitter rivalry of the 2024 Republican presidential primary been put to rest? It depends on whom you ask.
Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) traded barbs for much of 2023 and early 2024 after the governor launched his bid for the GOP nomination, a move Trump and his team saw as a slight.
Trump spent months burying DeSantis with personal insults and accusing him of being ungrateful for the endorsement that helped him secure the gubernatorial nomination in Florida in 2018. DeSantis ignored the attacks for a time, but eventually he returned fire by arguing Trump had 'lost his fastball' and calling on him to debate.
Adding fuel to the feud, DeSantis had cast out Susie Wiles, who was Trump's 2024 co-campaign manager and is now his chief of staff.
The two men seem to have put their differences aside in recent months. Trump met with DeSantis during a trip to Florida to tout ' Alligator Alcatraz,' a facility that is housing migrants awaiting deportation.
'I think we get along great,' DeSantis told Fox News on Sunday. 'We're working very constructively. No state has done more to support their agenda on illegal immigration than we have.'
Even Wiles has seemingly moved on from her animus toward Team DeSantis.
'He's a good governor, and whatever personal differences he had or whatever deficiencies he thought I had are long past my thinking about them,' Wiles told New York Post columnist Miranda Devine in a recent interview.
But the goodwill does not extend throughout Trump World. Some who worked on Trump's 2024 bid have indicated they will neither forget nor forgive DeSantis for what they see as the grave offense of his presidential bid.
Tony Fabrizio, who served as Trump's pollster in 2016 and 2024, responded harshly to a social media post suggesting DeSantis was positioning himself for another presidential run in 2028.
'Old Pudding Fingers @GovRonDeSantis better hope @ChrisLaCivita and I are both dead to have any minute chance in '28,' Fabrizio posted on the social platform X, invoking a rumor about DeSantis from 2023 eating pudding with his fingers.