President Donald Trump dipped back into the long-running debate surrounding the renaming of the Washington Commanders, which the NFL team retired five years ago.
Trump on Wednesday called the name change that Native Americans protested for decades “degrading to the Indian population,” while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office.
“And they like when they’re called by various names,” Trump said. “But I can tell you that I’ve spoken to people of Indian heritage who love that name and love that team, and I think it’s a much superior name to what they have right now."
“And it had heritage behind it, it had something special,” he added.
Trump also made clear he sees “nothing wrong” with the Kansas City Chiefs retaining their name.
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“And all these Indian surnames and different names, I’m saying that’s a positive thing. They don’t know why these names are taken off,” the MAGA leader said Wednesday. “I think it’s degrading to the Indian population, and it’s a great population.”
Trump earlier on Monday made similar remarks using the same language when he sounded off in a Truth Social post after the Massapequa School Board asked him to help them keep their district’s Native American logo.
“I agree with the people in Massapequa, Long Island, who are fighting furiously to keep the Massapequa Chiefs logo on their Teams and School,” Trump wrote earlier in the week. “Forcing them to change the name, after all of these years, is ridiculous and, in actuality, an affront to our great Indian population.”
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