D.C. Mayor Will Back Commanders’ New Stadium Even If They Change Name Back to Redskins

Washington D.C.’s Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser is reportedly saying that she will not withdraw her support for a new stadium deal even if the Washington Commanders revert to the team’s original name and once again call themselves the Redskins.

WUSA 9 reporter Eric Flack says on X that he asked Mayor Bowser if she will withdraw her support for the team if they return to their previous moniker, and she flatly replied, “No.”

This would seem to be a bit of a turnaround from her previous claims that she could not support a stadium deal for any team named the Redskins. In 2022, for instance, Bowser declared that it was “past time” for the team to end its use of the name “Redskins.” And in 2023, she transitioned from mild interest to an enthusiastic pursuit of the team’s return to RFK after the team changed its name.

For his part, the president has been straightforward in his desire to see the Commanders return to being the Redskins. And in a Truth Social post on Sunday, he even stated, “I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins.”

However, regardless of Bowers’s support, President Trump has multiple avenues to scuttle the RFK stadium deal if he remains unhappy that the team retains its current name, the Commanders.

As WUSA’s Flack noted, Trump could use his executive powers to cancel the lease plans, use his influence on the National Capital Planning Commission to scotch construction plans, or use his power with the Commission of Fine Arts to refuse to approve the design of the stadium.

Despite all that, though, Trump has been very enthusiastic over having a big, beautiful new sports stadium only a stone’s throw from the White House. Only weeks ago, Trump called the proposed site for the project a “great piece of property” and insisted that he is ready and willing to get the deal done.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, X at WTHuston, or Truth Social at @WarnerToddHuston.