Donald Trump Blasts Cleveland Indians for Changing Team Name

Donald Trump is not happy with a decision made by the Cleveland Indians. The New York Post reported on Sunday night that Cleveland was dropping the Indians nickname after years of criticism. When Trump heard the news, he went to Twitter and wrote “Cancel culture at work.”

This is not a surprising reaction from Trump, as he supported the old team name from NFL’s Washington Football Team. Back in July, Trump wrote on Twitter: “They name teams out of STRENGTH, not weakness, but now the Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians, two fabled sports franchises, look like they are going to be changing their names in order to be politically correct. Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now!”

Trump sent out that tweet amid the racial injustice protests going on across the country. He was also responding to Cleveland’s statement on looking at its nickname. “We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality,” the team said in a statement at the time. “Our organization fully recognizes our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community … The recent social unrest in our community and our country has only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice.”

Cleveland is expected to make an announcement on the team name this week. However, it’s unclear if the change will happen for the 2021 Major League Baseball season, which begins in late March. The move by Cleveland could put pressure on other teams to look at their team names — specifically, the Atlanta Braves of MLB and Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. For the Braves, they announced during the summer the team name would not change but would look at the chop celebration.

“Changing the name of the Braves is not under consideration or deemed necessary,” the Braves said in an email to season ticket holders in July. “We have great respect and reverence for our name and the Native American communities that have held meaningful relationships with us do as well.”