Under despotic foreign dictatorships, sports stadiums are often named after the dictator, or sometimes after the date of the coup that brought that leader to power.
Donald Trump has a similar idea.
ESPN reported Saturday that the president wants the new NFL stadium, for the Washington Commanders, to be named after himself.
“A senior White House source said there have been back-channel communications with a member of the Commanders’ ownership group, led by Josh Harris, to express Trump’s desire to have the domed stadium in the nation’s capital bear his name,” ESPN reported. “The new stadium is being built on the old RFK Stadium site that served as the team’s home from 1961 to 1996.”
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The Commanders have played in Maryland since 1996. Washington’s city government approved the new stadium deal earlier this year.
Filed to ESPN: EXCLUSIVE: Sources: Trump wants Commanders’ new D.C. stadium named for him
With @AdamSchefter https://t.co/qJGRmioJTa
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) November 8, 2025
“That would be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told ESPN. “It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen.”
Trump will attend the Commanders’ game Sunday, as a guest of Harris, the owner of the team.
Trump had hosted the Washington team’s ownership at the White House to announce that the 2027 NFL Draft would be held in Washington. Trump also hinted that he would force the team to revert to its former nickname, implicitly as a condition for the new stadium to go forward, although it doesn’t appear the team had any interest in acceding to that demand.
As for the demand to name the stadium after him? NFL teams usually strike naming rights deals with corporations, in which they are paid millions of dollars to put their name on the stadium. The Commanders would have to be willing to eschew that money, unless Trump chose to strike such a deal, to name the stadium after the Trump Organization or one of his other businesses. The current stadium in Maryland was long called FedEx Field, and is now known as Northwest Stadium.
There is little precedent, at least in modern history in the United States, for sports stadiums to be named for political figures. One exception is New Jersey’s Brendan Byrne Meadowlands Arena, which was named for the then-governor of New Jersey, although that name was later replaced by a series of corporate names.
There was some skepticism that “Trump Stadium” would ever happen.
“The team doesn’t have the authority. They can’t name the stadium … on their own,” one source told ESPN. “The city would be involved in that decision, and the Park Service would be involved.”
Another source, though, indicated it’s a possibility.
“He has cards to play. 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,” the source told ESPN. “Trump has plenty of cards to play to get his way.”
It’s also worth noting that the new stadium is scheduled to open in 2030, when Trump will already be out of office.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
