The commander in chief wants the new Washington Commanders’ stadium outside of Washington, DC to bear the Trump name.
The White House is all-but confirming a report on ESPN that it has expressed interest in the idea of naming the stadium after President Trump, as the team moves ahead with plans for construction on the site of the old Robert F. Kennedy memorial stadium in Southeast, DC.
“That would be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Post Saturday.
The White House did not provide further clarification on whether the naming was a requirement for continued support, but a source told ESPN bluntly: “It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen.”
Trump is set to attend Sunday’s Commanders home game against the Detroit Lions after spending the start of the weekend at Mar-a-Lago.
He will join a special Veterans’ Day event at half-time, and will view the game from owner Josh Harris’ luxury box.
Pro stadium naming rights sell for millions of dollars annually.
Northwest Federal Credit Union agreed to pay $7.5 million per year for an eight year naming deal, after a similar FedEx naming contract expired last year for the stadium that hosts the Commanders.
The stadium is located in Landover, Maryland outside DC, with a contract with the team running through 2027. The new stadium, part of a massive commercial development, is projected to be complete in 2030.
In July Trump threatened to hold up the deal unless the team changed its name back to the one it had during its glory days. The team ditched the Washington Redskins moniker in 2020 and adopted the Commanders name after years of pressure and controversy.
“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social at the time, although he failed to carry through on the threat.
Like many projects in DC, the naming would involve overlapping bureaucracies. The stadium sits on land managed by the National Park Service, but D.C.’s city council would also have to vote through a naming arrangement under a long-term lease. Former President Joe Biden signed legislation in January transferring control of the land from the federal government to the city for a period of 99 years.
The DC City Council approved plans for the $3.7 billion, 65,000-seat domed stadium in September. The team played at RFK from 1961 until 1996, at a location that lines up with the US Capitol and the Washington Monument and was a feature of aerial broadcasts during the team’s heyday.
Trump, who has overseeing construction of a new White House ballroom after demolition of the East Wing of the White House, sold the Trump International Hotel he owned in the city in 2022. He has never been shy about putting his name on buildings. He spoke this week about his decision to put his name on the new TrumpRX portal for discounted weight loss drugs.
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