Trump has nothing better to do than debate an NFL team's name?

Washington Post

21-07-2025

Donald Trump has never been beyond offering unsolicited advice. Here's some, from 2013, back when he was merely a reality show star.
'President should not be telling the Washington Redskins to change their name-our country has far bigger problems!' Trump tweeted, back when Twitter was Twitter and he didn't have a social media platform of his own. 'FOCUS on them,not [sic] nonsense.'
That brings us to this past weekend. It should go without saying that the name of the NFL team that represents Washington but isn't headquartered in Washington and doesn't play in Washington — yet, anyway — should be of little or no concern to the president of the United States. But apparently, we have to say it:
President Trump, this is not your concern. You said it years ago, when someone else was president — when Barack Obama said merely that if he owned the team, he would consider changing the name. Now, Josh Harris owns the Washington Commanders. Harris has said he isn't interested in changing the name, that it now means something inside the team's headquarters. The Washington Commanders are working on a deal for a new stadium with the District government. They can handle that without presidential interference — er, help.
'We're kind of moving forward with the Commanders name,' Harris said on none other than Fox News in April. 'Excited about that — and not looking back.'
Which is where we all should be — president or owner, fan or not.
It can be tiring to be a resident of the District of Columbia. Part of that is not having voting representation in Congress, a real and material aspect of living here that can make you feel like something less than a full American citizen. Part of that is having Congress right here on top of us, lawmakers with no real attachment to or interest in the city so tempted to insert themselves into the District's business.
And it's tiring, in part, when Trump is president or running for the office. The attacks aren't just about the football team's nickname. The attacks can seem personal.
'Washington, D.C., has become a dirty, crime-ridden death trap that must be taken over and properly run,' Trump said in 2023 at a New Hampshire campaign stop. '… Being in real estate, I always kept clean properties. I like clean, clean, well-run, you know, tippy-top. We say, 'Tippy-top. We want 'em to be tippy-top.' Well, our capital is the opposite of tippy-top. It's a s---house. Horrible. It's horrible. It's so horrible. You know, our parks are littered and dirty and disgusting, and many, many homeless are living there.'
D.C. isn't without its problems, like any city. It is not a hellscape. Far from it.
At issue here is Trump's threat, made on his Truth Social media platform Sunday, that he could blow up the District's yet-to-be-completed deal with the Commanders for a new stadium if the team didn't go back to 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,' he wrote. 'The Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone.'
This should, of course, be seen as ridiculous blathering, in large part because even the president doesn't have the authority to unilaterally undo the District's deal — passed by Congress in December — to take control of the land around RFK Stadium. But we live in an era in which ridiculous blathering can somehow morph into reality, so Trump's unserious posts have to be taken seriously.
The two people in awkward spots because of this: Harris and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). Start with Harris, who visited the Oval Office to help Trump celebrate Washington landing the 2027 draft (quite an accomplishment for a 's---house,' by the way).
'You are the ultimate Commander,' Harris told Trump as he presented him with a team jersey.
Oy. Harris's concerns should be with the D.C. Council, which has yet to schedule a vote on the funding package Harris is counting on for infrastructure and parking around the new stadium he would build. (Side note: Fight on, Council members. Make sure you get some money from parking and rent — at least — before agreeing to any deal.)
Bowser has made bringing the NFL team back to the District a significant part of her legacy — so much so that she celebrated the stadium deal before it was done, so much so that she softened her previous anti-Redskins stance on Monday, saying at a news conference that the old name wouldn't overshadow her desire to have the team in her town. Ugh.
I wrote in 2020 that the old name should be changed, and while that moment in society and politics has passed, I don't want the name back. When Harris said in February that the name Commanders 'is growing in meaning,' it felt like the issue was dead. Finally.
But Trump's online diatribe Sunday was less about the name than about the District and who runs it. We don't have voting members of Congress to whom we can turn. And too frequently, members of Congress elected by people in other parts of the country show interest in our affairs. Take that land around RFK Stadium, which is owned by the federal government but now leased to the District.
'The federal government transferred administrative control of this valuable property with the clear expectation that the D.C. Council would act decisively to maximize its potential,' James Comer (R-Kentucky), the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote last week in a letter to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D). 'The Committee was disappointed to see the Council's vote on the stadium deal delayed, particularly given the significant economic benefits at stake and the clear mandate provided by federal legislation.'
Was the clear mandate to rush to a deal without consideration of what's best for the District's 700,000 residents?
In the end, the Commanders name shouldn't change unless Harris wants it and Harris vets it. The Commanders stadium shouldn't land in the District unless the District's leaders find a deal that works for the District's citizens. And the president should know our country has far bigger problems. FOCUS on them, not nonsense.