What’s in a Name?

President Trump, perhaps seeking to divert attention from the Jeffrey Epstein saga, last weekend lobbed an out-of-nowhere demand: The Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians must restore the racist team names and logos they discarded years ago. It was both an attempt to change the conversation and a rallying cry to the right.

Trump loves to rename things — military bases and ships, a mountain, a body of water. It’s often part of his Great Unwokening quest. But it’s also a way he asserts power, an expression of his belief in the potency of branding and a nod to how nostalgia shapes his political project.

“This is about turning back the clock,” said Paul Lukas, a journalist and author who writes about consumer culture and who for 25 years ran a website focused on sports uniforms and logos. “He has this vision of a world and an America where things were the way they were supposed to be, and two of those things were these two team names.”

Today’s newsletter is about how Trump reopens seemingly settled questions, including ones about team names, years after the controversy around them has ended.

Brand Trump

The president’s record as a businessman is checkered, but his knack for brand-building is beyond doubt. He started renaming things in his real estate days, plastering his own name on buildings he bought. And in politics, it’s all about MAGA, always with the red hat. The spinoff brands — Make America Healthy Again, Make America Beautiful Again — only highlight the ubiquity of the original.