It\u2019s a return to the president\u2019s favorite rebranding strategy, one well-used around the world and throughout history. Powers-that-be rename something \u2014 a body of water, a mountain in Alaska<\/a>, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Mumbai, various places in Israel after 1948 \u2014 in line with \u201ccurrent\u201d political and cultural views. Using names to tell a leader\u2019s own version of the nation\u2019s story is a perk of power that Trump is far from the first<\/a> to enjoy.<\/p>\n A name, after all, defines identity and even reality because it is connected to the verb \u201cto be,\u201c says one brand strategist.<\/p>\n \u201cA parent naming a child, a founder naming a company, a president naming a place … in each example, we can see the relationship of power,\u201d Shannon Murphy, who runs Nameistry, a naming agency that works with companies and entrepreneurs to develop brand identities, said in an email. \u201cNaming gives you control.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump reignited a debate on football and American identity<\/p>\n In Trump\u2019s case, reviving the debate over the Washington football team\u2019s name had the added effect of distraction.<\/p>\n \u201cMy statement on the Washington Redskins has totally blown up, but only in a very positive way,\u201d he wrote on his social media platform, adding a threat to derail the team\u2019s deal for a new stadium if it resisted.<\/p>\n In fact, part of the reaction came from people noting that Trump\u2019s proposed renaming came as he struggled to move past a rebellion among his supporters<\/a> over the administration\u2019s refusal<\/a> to release much-hyped records<\/a> in Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking investigation. Over about two weeks, Trump had cycled through many tactics \u2014 downplaying the issue, blaming others<\/a>, scolding a reporter<\/a>, insulting his own supporters<\/a>, suing the Wall Street Journal<\/a> and finally authorizing the Justice Department to try to unseal grand jury transcripts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s demand that the NFL and the District of Columbia change the team\u2019s name back to a dictionary definition of a slur against Native Americans<\/a> reignited a brawl in miniature over race, history and the American identity.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s reelection itself can be seen as a response to the nation\u2019s reckoning with its racial history after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. That year, Americans elected Democratic President Joe Biden, who championed diversity. During his term, Washington\u2019s football team became first the Washington Football Team, then the Commanders, at a widely estimated cost in the tens of millions of dollars. And in 2021, The Cleveland Indians became the Cleveland Guardians. <\/p>\n In 2025, Trump has ordered<\/a> a halt to diversity, equity and inclusion programs through the federal government, universities and schools,<\/a> despite legal challenges<\/a>. And he wants the Commanders\u2019 name changed back<\/a>, though it\u2019s unclear if he has the authority to restrict the nearly $4 billion project<\/a>.<\/p>\n Is Trump\u2019s \u2018Redskins\u2019 push a distraction or a power play?<\/p>\n What\u2019s clear is that names carry great power where business, national identity, race, history and culture intersect. <\/p>\n Trump has had great success for decades branding everything from buildings he named after himself to the Gulf between Mexico, Cuba and the United States to his political opponents and people he simply doesn\u2019t like. Exhibit A: Florida\u2019s governor, dubbed by Trump \u201cMeatball Ron\u201d DeSantis<\/a>, who challenged him for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.<\/p>\n And Trump is not the first<\/a> leader to use monikers and nicknames \u2014 branding, really \u2014 to try to define reality and the people who populate it. Naming was a key tool of colonization that modern-day countries are still trying to dislodge. \u201cNaming,\u201d notes one expert, \u201cis never neutral.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cTo name is to collapse infinite complexity into a manageable symbol, and in that compression, whole worlds are won or lost,\u201c linguist Norazha Paiman wrote last month on Medium.<\/p>\n \u201dWhen the British renamed places throughout India or Africa, they weren\u2019t just updating maps,\u201d Paiman wrote. \u201cThey were restructuring the conceptual frameworks through which people could relate to their own territories.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n President Donald Trump wears a hat with the slogan \u201cGulf of America – Yet Another Trump Development\u201d as he speaks to the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House to board Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md., and on to Florida, July 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, File)<\/p>\n President Donald Trump wears a hat with the slogan \u201cGulf of America – Yet Another Trump Development\u201d as he speaks to the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House to board Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md., and on to Florida, July 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, File)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n This is not Trump\u2019s first rebranding push<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America is perhaps the best-known result of Executive Order 14172, titled \u201cRestoring Names That Honor American Greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n The renaming sent mapmakers, search engines and others into a flurry over whether to change the name. And it set off a legal dispute with The Associated Press over First Amendment freedoms that is still winding through the courts<\/a>. The news outlet\u2019s access<\/a> to events in the Oval Office and Air Force One was cut back starting in February<\/a> after the AP said<\/a> it would continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico in its copy, while noting Trump\u2019s wishes that it instead be renamed the Gulf of America.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if Trump\u2019s name will stick universally \u2014 or go the way of \u201cfreedom fries,\u201d a brief attempt by some in the George W. Bush-era GOP to rebrand french fries after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s evidence that at least for business in some places, the \u201cGulf of America\u201d terminology has staying power. Chevron\u2019s earnings statements of late have referred to the Gulf of America, because \u201cthat\u2019s the position of the U.S. government now,\u201d CEO Mike Wirth said during a Jan. 31 call with investors.<\/p>\n And along the Gulf Coast in Republican Louisiana, leaders of the state\u2019s seafood industry call the body of water the Gulf of America, in part, because putting that slogan on local products might help beat back the influx of foreign shrimp flooding American markets, the Louisiana Illuminator news outlet reported.<\/p>\n Renaming is a bipartisan endeavor<\/p>\n The racial reckoning inspired by Floyd\u2019s killing rippled across the cultural landscape. <\/p>\n Quaker retired the Aunt Jemima brand<\/a> after it had been served up at America\u2019s breakfast tables for 131 years, saying it recognized that the character\u2019s origins were \u201cbased on a racial stereotype.\u201d Eskimo Pies became Edy\u2019s<\/a>. The Grammy-winning country band Lady Antebellum changed its name to Lady A<\/a>, saying they were regretful and embarrassed that their former moniker was associated with slavery.<\/p>\n And Trump didn\u2019t start the fight over football. Democratic President Barack Obama, in fact, told The Associated Press<\/a> in 2013 that he would \u201cthink about changing\u201d the name of the Washington Redskins if he owned the team.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n