White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt thinks “Trump Stadium” is a “beautiful name” for the Washington D.C. football stadium President Trump wants his name on.
“That would surely be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” Leavitt told the Daily Beast.
The Washington Commanders’ new stadium is projected to cost $3.7 billion. The football team struck a deal with the District of Columbia to build the stadium in April. At the time, the principle players in the deal were NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Commanders ownership group led by Josh Harris.
The site for the team’s new home base is the same land the now-shuttered Robert F. Kennedy Memorial stadium sat on in D.C.’s East Hill neighborhood. Approval for the project was finalized on Sept. 19.
ESPN reported on Saturday that the president is exerting pressure on the Commanders organization and Washington D.C. officials to get his name slapped onto the new arena through “back channel” discussions.
The Commanders own the naming rights to their new stadium and it was believed that they would sell the rights to a corporate sponsor, as most other football teams have. For Trump to get his name on the stadium, he would likely need approval from the District of Columbia Council, which will lease the stadium to the Commanders, and the National Park Service.
A source close to the situation told ESPN that Trump has “plenty of cards to play” to pressure the necessary organizations to bend to his will.
“He can make it very difficult, through government environmental approvals and other things, to make sure everyone who wants this stadium to be built will join to put his name on it,” said the source.
A White House source agreed, telling the publication, “It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen.”
Trump doesn’t want to pay any money for the naming rights, and is demanding that the team put his name on the stadium as a tribute to his efforts to get the stadium built.
President Trump threatened to kill the deal in July unless the team reverted back to its former name. The organization made the change in 2020 after decades of public pressure.
Trump is attending Sunday’s Commanders game in Washington, where he’s expected to join in halftime festivities honoring the military.
The Washington Commanders currently play at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, after having played in RFK Stadium from 1961-1996. Construction on the new stadium will begin in the fall of 2026 and it is slated to host its first Commanders game in 2030.
