Republicans and President Donald Trump have long hailed victories over cancel culture and name censoring wrought by the left, and Trump is doubling down on calls to restore the original names of the NFL's Washington Commanders and baseball's Cleveland Guardians.
"The Washington 'Whatever's' should immediately change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday. "There is a big clamoring for this.
"Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past."
When the Washington Redskins were first forced to change their name, they became The Washington Football Team before ultimately settling on Washington Commanders. The Cleveland Indians then changed their name from honoring Native Americans by becoming the Guardians.
While those franchise names were changed under the guise of diversity, equity and inclusion sensitivities during the cancel culture era, the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Braves had skirted the renaming campaigns.
Trump noted Native Americans are honored and not denigrated by the classic names of franchises, suggesting the leftist cancel culture only worked to diminish the American salutes to Native American "heritage and prestige."
"Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen," Trump's post continued. "Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them.
"Times are different now than they were three or four years ago."
Trump's administration has also worked to restore the names removed by the Biden administration under the guise of DEI, like the U.S. military bases.
"We are a country of passion and common sense," Trump's post concluded in his post on the day marking the sixth month of his administration. "Owners, get it done!!!"
Trump has had a checkered past with the NFL, once getting stonewalled on a bid to buy an NFL team and kicking up a firestorm during his first administration when quarterback Colin Kaepernick started his campaign against policing by protesting the national anthem.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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