Trump Says 'Make Indians Great Again': 42 Years Ago, He Tried To Buy And Move The Cleveland Indians
President Donald Trump has a history with sports team ownership. With his latest comments about the names of National Football League and Major League Baseball franchises making the rounds, here's a look back at how the president almost owned the very MLB team he's criticizing.
What Happened: Trump took to his Truth Social platform over the weekend to criticize the name changes made by several professional sports teams that were once named after Indians.
"The Washington ‘Whatever's' should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team," Trump said. "Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past."
In his first post, Trump said that the "great Indian people" want to see these team names changed back.
"Times are different now than they were three or four years ago. We are a Country of passion and common sense."
In a second post, Trump said his original message has blown up in a positive way and he went as far as saying that he might put restrictions on the NFL's Commanders if they don't change their name back.
"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 said Cleveland should do the same and change their name back to the Indians.
"Make Indians Great Again (MIGA)!"
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Loyalty to Cleveland Indians Name, But Not The City: Trump attacking the Cleveland Indians name and team ownership has brought a story involving the team and Trump back to light.
While Trump is preaching loyalty to the team's past name and the Indians name and mascot, the president once bid on buying the MLB team, but couldn't back the team with his loyalty.
Trump offered $13 million to buy the Indians in February 1983, as reported by the Sporting News. Trump's lawyer at the time sent a letter to then Indians president Gabe Paul.
"I am authorized to offer Thirteen Million dollars for same free from debt and subject to usual review and acceptance of all contracts in effect," the letter reads.
Trump also reportedly raised his offer later that year to $34 million.
The future president's offers to buy the Indians were rejected. One of the main reasons why was that Trump would not commit to keeping the Indians in the city of Cleveland for more than three years.
Reports say Tampa was mentioned as one of the locations for Trump to move the team to if he was successful in his bid.
The team later sold for $35 million to the Jacobs brothers.
Trump's bid came after the 1982 MLB season when the Indians went 70-92 and hadn't made the MLB Playoffs since 1954. The bid also came before the city of Tampa eventually got an MLB franchise with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, now known as the Tampa Bay Rays, beginning play in the 1998 season.
Why It's Important: The Indians are valued at $1.4 billion today, ranking 25th among MLB franchises, according to Forbes.
While the team struggled in the decades before Trump's bid, the team has made the MLB Playoffs in six of the last nine seasons. The franchise won World Series titles in 1920 and 1948 and lost in the World Series in 1954, 1995, 1997 and 2016.
The Indians made three World Series appearances since Trump's bid.
The team seems content with keeping their name.
"We've gotten the opportunity to build the brand as the Guardians over the last four years and are excited about the future," Cleveland Guardians' president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti told reporters Sunday.
Antonetti said changing the name back to Indians is not something the team is tracking or has been paying attention to.
When it comes to the Cleveland MLB franchise, it looks like Trump will be unsuccessful at buying the team and unsuccessful at getting the team to change its name back.
As with his potential NFL team ownership, while looking at the potential that Trump owned an MLB team today, fans and critics of the current president can’t help but question if things would look different today.
If Trump owned a professional sports team, would he have entered politics and become president?
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