PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — President Trump is demanding the Washington Commanders go back to their former Redskins name, threatening to stop the construction of their new stadium on the site of the old RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. He is also demanding the Cleveland Guardians MLB team revert to their previous moniker, the Indians.

The team started as the Redskins in Boston back in 1933. They moved to D.C. about four years later. In the summer of 2020, amid a reckoning of social issues and after decades of criticism, the team, then owned by Dan Snyder, decided to remove the Redskins name. For a handful of years, they were simply referred to as the Washington Football Team.

“I wanted to get some of their merch when they were the Football Team, because I knew it wasn’t going to last,” said Josh Messick of Virginia Beach.

They re-branded to the Washington Commanders. In a Truth Social post, President Trump said if they do not change it back to the Redskins, he “won’t make a deal for them to build a new stadium in Washington.”

This stems from efforts to build a new home for the Washington Commanders at the site of the old RFK Stadium. It is still unclear if President Trump even has the ability to hold up the deal, since the land was turned over from the federal government to D.C.

Earlier this year, Commanders owner Josh Harris already shot down rumors they would go back. Many people we spoke with in town think the name should go back.

“It’s been that way for how many years, and the history with it. So why change it now? Keep it what it was,” Tracy Brozich said in support of the Redskins name.

When Gaylene Kanoyton with the Hampton NAACP heard about the president’s demand, she said, “Here we go again with another deflection.”

To her, Redskins is not just a simple name.

“I think the name says it for itself, Red Skins,” Kanoyton said. “If you think about the history of what happened during that time, I mean, it’s no different than using the N word with Black people. That’s a derogatory word. Every culture has a derogatory word. Let’s talk about the real issues. Let’s talk about what’s impacting Americans.”

In 2013, Donald Trump posted this on the website formerly known as Twitter: “President should not be telling the Washington Redskins to change their name — our country has far bigger problems! FOCUS on them, not nonsense.”

The RFK Stadium project is estimated to cost nearly $4 billion.