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U.S. President Donald Trump has called on the NFL’s Commanders and MLB’s Guardians to revive their former nicknames.

“The Washington “Whatever’s” should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social account Sunday. “There is a big clamoring for this. Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past. Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago. We are a Country of passion and common sense. OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!”

Washington and Cleveland have both used their respective nicknames since 2022. From 2020–21, the NFL franchise was known as the Washington Football Team.

Trump has previously spoken publicly about his preference for both the Commanders and Guardians to use their former names.

D.C. Stadium Deal in Trouble?

Roughly five hours after Trump’s first post Sunday, he weighed back in on Truth Social to insinuate that the Commanders’ deal to build a $3.8 billion domed stadium in Washington, D.C., could hinge on a name change.

“My statement on the Washington Redskins has totally blown up, but only in a very positive way,” Trump wrote. “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. The Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone.”

There have already been some political tensions over the Commanders’ plans to build on the grounds of their former home, RFK Stadium. The franchise is seeking more than $1 billion in public funding from the D.C. Council. 

Commanders owner Josh Harris had previously thanked Trump for his support in the Commanders striking a deal to build a new $3.8 billion stadium in D.C. In May, Trump hosted the Commanders and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at the White House to announce that the 2027 NFL Draft would be held in Washington, D.C.

Harris has previously said a change back to Washington’s former name wasn’t on the table. However, the franchise is leaning into its past, particularly around the reveal of new retro uniforms that will be used this season, which harken back to the team’s glory days of the 1980s and early 1990s. Washington used the Redskins nickname from 1937 to 2019, and they won Super Bowls in 1982, 1987, and 1991. 

Guardians in Trump’s Crosshairs

Trump also added more thoughts about the Guardians in his second post Sunday.

“Cleveland should do the same with the Cleveland Indians,” he wrote. “The Owner of the Cleveland Baseball Team, Matt Dolan, who is very political, has lost three Elections in a row because of that ridiculous name change. What he doesn’t understand is that if he changed the name back to the Cleveland Indians, he might actually win an Election. Indians are being treated very unfairly. MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!”

Matt Dolan is the brother of Guardians chairman and CEO Paul J. Dolan, who has been the franchise’s controlling owner since January 2013. Larry Dolan, Matt and Paul’s father, died in February. Matt Dolan was a Republican member of the Ohio Senate from 2017 to 2024; he made unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate in 2022 and 2024.

Guardians president Chris Antonetti released a statement after Trump’s comments. “I understand there are very different perspectives on the decision we made a few years ago,” he said. “But it’s a decision we’ve made and we’ve gotten the opportunity to build the brand as the Guardians over the last four years and we’re excited about the future that’s in front of us.”

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Claire Pease, with a steely gaze, started her vault run and then launched into the air, smoothly landing a Yurchenko double full and giving her coach a casual high-five as she walked off the floor.

She didn’t know it at that moment, but the rising U.S. gymnast had just clinched herself a title at an event Simone Biles has won the last five times she’s competed in it.

“Tell you what, this athlete right here,” NBC’s John Roethlisberger said on the Peacock broadcast, “get ready, U.S. championships. Get ready, world championships.”

At Saturday’s U.S. Classic, America’s top elite women’s gymnasts honed their skills ahead of next month’s U.S. gymnastics championships, all of it building up to the world championships in October. There was some nostalgia. An Olympic champion was in the field. A Simone finished on the podium. However, most of it felt very new, a glimpse into what the Olympic future might look like for Team USA.

At 16, Pease will head to the U.S. championships entrenched as a name to watch after beating Simone Rose, Joscelyn Roberson, 2024 Olympic team gold medalist Hezly Rivera and plenty of others Saturday.

Biles was in the building, but not to compete. She was watching from the stands with husband Jonathan Owens, cheering on the next generation. Like her Olympic teammates Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey, Biles stepped away from elite competition this year after the grueling run to gold in Paris.

“It means the world,” Roberson, an alternate on last summer’s Olympic team, said of Biles’ presence. “I mean, she’s the busiest human ever. She was at the ESPYs two days ago. She called me and she was like, ‘OK, I have this, this and this, but if you really want me there, I’ll be there.’ And I was like, ‘I kind of really want you there.’ And she was like, ‘OK, so it’s done.’”

Claire Pease competes during Saturday’s U.S. Classic. The 16-year-old won the event, a major tune-up to next month’s U.S. championships. (Courtesy of USA Gymnastics)

Taking a break is nothing unusual following an Olympics, but for Biles, Lee and Chiles — three pillars of Team USA’s success over the last three Olympic cycles — all have extra considerations weighing on them.

Lee, the 22-year-old all-around gold medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, was diagnosed with a kidney disease in 2023 but returned to competition that summer and went on to add an all-around bronze in Paris. She has not said whether she will try for the Los Angeles Olympics, still three years away, but in an October Q&A held on Snapchat, she responded to a question about it by writing, “my body hurts … this sport kills me.”

Chiles, the 24-year-old key piece of the Americans’ team medals in the past two Olympics, had a hard-luck time of it in individual competition in Paris. She posted the fourth-best qualifying score in the individual all-around competition. Still, she wasn’t allowed to compete in the final because she was the third American on the list. Olympic rules only allow two from each country to participate in the final.

Then, she appeared to win her first individual Olympic medal after her coach appealed her score in the floor exercise and got it raised enough to move her from fourth to third. However, a counter-appeal claimed the Americans were four seconds late in lodging their protest, and the International Olympic Committee announced it would award the bronze to Romania’s Ana Bǎrbosu instead. Chiles has not returned her medal, and the case is ongoing.

Chiles — like Carey, who also has not decided on 2028 — chose to compete at the NCAA level this season. She has one more year to go at UCLA and has said she’ll reevaluate her feelings on trying for L.A. after that.

And, of course, there’s Biles. At 28, the most decorated gymnast in history has 11 Olympic and 30 world championship medals. She led the U.S. to team gold in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and again last summer in Paris. In between, there was the bout with the “twisties” — a mental block affecting awareness and control while doing aerial maneuvers — in Tokyo that led her to withdraw from competition there.

Biles, too, is undecided on trying for the 2028 Olympics, but her recent comments do not exactly sound like someone itching to come back.

“I’ve accomplished so much in my sport. For me to come back, it would really have to excite me,” she told French newspaper L’Equipe in April. “But 2028 seems so far away, and my body is aging. I felt it in Paris.”

At the very least, the U.S. women will head to this year’s world championships without four of the gymnasts who have been so key to their success across the past three Olympics. And at least one of them may decide that the mental and physical toll of another Olympic run is not worth the commitment in a sport that beats up the body and generally leans younger.

The Vault that sealed gold for Claire Pease! 👏⤵️@NBCOlympics | #USClassic pic.twitter.com/3CUTwyszto

— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) July 20, 2025

For the next generation of names atop the leaderboard in Hoffman Estates, Ill., that means their time is arriving. Pease, the 16-year-old who won the junior championship at this event last year, made her statement Saturday. In her final rotation, she posted the night’s best vault score to surpass Rose for the top spot on the podium.

“More confidence, more consistency, and high execution scores,” Pease said of what she’s trying to improve over the summer.

Rose, the 17-year-old who said making last year’s Olympic trials proved to her that she belonged in the gym with the sport’s best, has now finished on the podium at two significant competitions this season after her bronze at February’s Winter Cup.

“I heard a little bit, but I just wanted to focus on me and the gymnastics,” she said of knowing where she stood heading into the last rotation. “I didn’t care about the outcome. I just focused on how I did.”

Roberson, who was part of Team USA’s gold medal squad at the 2023 world championships, finished with a sparkling turn on the bars to finish in third place. At 19, she’s still getting used to being the veteran in situations like this.

“A lot of times, before these meets, I would get nervous, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, they’re not watching me, they’re watching (Biles). Just chill out.’ But now, knowing that they were watching me, that made me extremely nervous. And I had to remind myself, ‘This is what you worked your whole life for.’”

Hezly Rivera made the Olympic squad last year, winning gold in the team event. At 16, she was the youngest Team USA athlete in Paris. (Courtesy of USA Gymnastics)

Rivera, 17, was the headliner going into Saturday after being part of the Americans’ team gold in Paris. She struggled early, with a bad fall on the dismount from the uneven bars and a slip off the beam before turning it around on floor and vault.

“It definitely took a lot of mental strength for me,” said Rivera, who was the youngest member of Team USA’s delegation in Paris last year. “I just wanted to show myself and prove to myself how strong I am. Because I know I can do everything physically, it’s just a mental game at this point. So I’m glad I just switched the flip from bars and beam to floor and vault.”

The U.S. Classic is just one piece of the team selection puzzle in the build-up to worlds. Athletes are still fine-tuning their routines and working up to the biggest stage. However, with Biles, Chiles, Lee and Carey away, the next generation has the stage right now.

And in three years, any one of them could be a new face competing in the Olympics.

“It’s definitely crazy,” Ashlee Sullivan, 18, said of being in the spotlight after posting the night’s top score on the beam. “I never really think that people care. I don’t really feel like people know me or people really watch me, so it’s kind of crazy to hear all that.”

(Top photo of, from left, Simone Rose, Claire Pease and Joscelyn Roberson: Courtesy of USA Gymnastics)