North America’s tallest mountain is likely to get its second name change in less than 10 years after Donald Trump announced he supports renaming Denali in honor of a former president.
The president-elect announced he wants to see the name changed back to Mount McKinley, named after William McKinley, who was assassinated early in his second term by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in 1901.
“They took his name off Mount McKinley, that’s what they do to people,” Trump said.
“McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” the president-elect told supporters at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix on Sunday. First elected in 1896, the 25th president was praised by Trump for raising a “vast amount of money” to help pay for the Panama Canal and other projects.
The incoming president has also pledged to undo Democrats’ rebranding of Southern military bases named after Confederates, including Fort Liberty in Fayetteville, North Carolina, formerly named after Gen. Braxton Bragg.
The Republican statesman was generally viewed during his time as a successful president, leading the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and taking control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
Trump, who has pledged to enact tariffs on day one of his administration, has credited McKinley’s tariffs with jumpstarting the U.S. economy to such a level “that we had commissions set up to decide what to do with all the money we were taking in.”
(Most economists say tariffs will negatively impact the American consumer, driving up prices considerably.)
“That’s one of the reasons we’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley — because I think he deserves it,” Trump said Sunday. “I think he deserves it. There are lots of things we can name, but I think he deserves it. It was not very gracious to take his name off, considering he did such a good job.”
Another reason: Barack Obama, whom Trump has long viewed with contempt, was the president who changed the name.
The U.S. Department of the Interior order, signed by Obama, stated that McKinley had never visited the mountain and had no “significant historical connection to the mountain or to Alaska.”
Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican, wasted no time announcing her opposition to Trump’s plan, posting on X, “There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali – the Great One.”
Alaska’s other senator, Dan Sullivan, also a Republican, said in a statement to KTUU this week most Alaskans prefer the “name that the very tough, very strong, very patriotic Athabascan people gave” the mountain range.
Alaskans first changed the name to Denali in 1975, beginning a 40-year campaign to convince federal officials to authorize the rechristening.
While most Alaskans welcomed the change, saying it’s more in tune with the state’s native culture; others say it should stick with the name its best known by.
“I don’t like the name of Denali. It is not descriptive. Everybody in the United States knows of Mt. McKinley and the various efforts made to climb it,” said Thomas Riggs of the Alaskan Engineering Commission, according to the National Park Service website.
The name McKinley was first proposed in 1896 by a gold prospector after he heard the former Ohio governor had secured the GOP nomination. But it would be another 25 years before the name became official.
Trump’s own supporters were largely in favor of Trump’s pledge however in a tweet that garnered over 7,000 comments, many were seemingly hoping he’d focus on more pressing issues. Others questioned why Obama received less criticism for changing the name.
“Not a good move. This is pettiness in a sense. He should concentrate on really important things, this is a really bad move. Maybe the Left is correct he is becoming dictatorial,” wrote one user, adding, “The Koyukon people who inhabit the area around the mountain have referred to the peak as “Denali” for centuries.”
Another added, “Yea definitely agree this is pointless. Getting the name changed to Denali was a big deal for the locals and anyone who has seen the mountain FEELS the mountain should never be named McKinley.”
“Obama at least had a reason to do it. Trump’s reason is literally just – Obama. Sad atr
