President Donald Trump is reportedly hoping the Washington Commanders’ upcoming stadium will bear his name.
According to ESPN, multiple White House sources said the president has expressed interest in having the team’s planned new home named in his honor. The report came a day after Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attended the Commanders’ matchup against the Detroit Lions at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
Following months of deliberation, the D.C. Council approved the team’s proposal on Sept. 17 to demolish the defunct Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium — located along the Anacostia River in eastern Washington, D.C. — and build a new stadium on the same site.
When asked for comment on the reports, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “That would surely be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible.”
The president first addressed the project in July when he was asked about the stalled $3.7 million stadium plan. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump said at the time. “I’ve been looking at the deal, and I don’t blame them. It’s a very important piece of property, so we’ll see. But if I can help them out, I would.”
Back then, however, Trump’s focus wasn’t on the stadium’s name but on the team’s. He told reporters that his “controversial statement” was his belief the franchise should revert to its old name — the Washington Redskins.
“I wouldn’t have changed the name… It doesn’t have the same ring to me,” he said.
The Commanders, originally founded as the Boston Braves in 1932 and renamed the Boston Redskins a year later, became the Washington Redskins in 1937 after moving to D.C. Under public pressure during the 2020 racial justice protests, the team retired the “Redskins” name, which many viewed as offensive to Native Americans. They briefly played as the Washington Football Team before adopting the Commanders name in 2022.
“The Indians don’t know why these names are being taken off,” Trump said in April. “I think it’s degrading to the Indian population, and it’s a great population.”
He added, “[Redskins] is a superior name to what they have now — it had heritage behind it, it had something special.”
