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Residents of Alaska Against Trump’s Idea To Rename U.S. Highest Mountain

 

Donald Trump wants to rename North America's highest mountain, which has drawn harsh criticism of the planned name change. It's now making both Republicans and Democrats see red.

On the left is Donald Trump. On the right is North America's highest mountain, Denali, which Trump now wants to rename. Photo: Andrew Harnik / Denali National Park and Preserve

It's a terrible, terrible idea,

says Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski to local news channel KTUU

Donald Trump has voiced a series of controversial proposals recently. He wants to buy Greenland, merge Canada with the United States and rename the Gulf of Mexico.

But in Alaska, something completely different has made both Republican and Democratic politicians stare at him. He wants to rename North America's highest mountain.

A terrible idea

The mountain has been called Denali in Alaska for centuries. That's the name used by the indigenous peoples and it means roughly "The Big One". But officially the mountain was named Mount McKinley after a gold digger decided to honor the then presidential candidate William McKinley in the late 1800s.

Locally in Alaska, the name Denali has nevertheless lived on. And in 2015, Barack Obama therefore decided that the mountain should also be officially called Denali.

When Trump now announced that he wants to change the name back during a meeting with a conservative group in Phoenix, he was met with cheers. But that was in Phoenix. In Alaska, it sounds different.

It's a terrible, terrible idea. We've already gone through this with President Trump at the beginning of his first term, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski tells local news channel KTUU.

Trump already put forward the proposal at that time. But dropped it after criticism within Republicans.

Fouad Youcefi: “Wants to make an impression”

The statement about Denali is one in a series of controversial proposals that Donald Trump has put forward after he secured the election victory.

He has not stated the reason, but it is in line with several other things Trump has said. Among other things, he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the American Gulf, says Fouad Youcefi, SVT's US correspondent.

Youcefi believes that it is about Trump now wanting to set the direction for his term in office.

I think it is partly about him wanting to make an impression even before he takes office. He wants to show that the United States is moving in a new expansive direction, where they want to make more things American. Regardless of whether it concerns Greenland, Panama, the Gulf of Mexico or Denali. In this case, at the expense of the indigenous peoples.

William McKinley is alleged to have never himself visited the mountain that was named after him. He was president from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.

Source: SVT (in Swedish)

Further reading:

Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute / Wikipedia

Denali or Mount McKinley? / National Park Service

Trump vows to rename Denali as Mount McKinley / Reuters

21.01.2025