Renaming Denali back to Mount McKinley, along with renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, will be among the nearly 200 day-one executive orders Donald Trump is expected to sign after being sworn into office for his second term as president, according to published reports.
Trump said during his second inaugural address Monday he plans to “restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.”
The pledge comes after he vow to change the name of the tallest mountain in the United States during a Dec. 22 speech in Phoenix.
Opposition had been expressed by Alaska’s two Republican U.S. senators. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is attending the inauguration, and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich —both strong Trump supporters — have not responded to inquiries about the renaming.
The mountain referred to as Denali by Alaska Natives for centuries was officially named Mount McKinley from 1917 until 2015, then changed to Denali in 2015 during President Barack Obama’s second term.
The name changes making Mount McKinley and the Gulf of America are being done to honor “American greatness,” according to the New York Post, which first reported the story, citing a preview of the executive orders planned by Trump. The order states the Secretary of the Interior will be directed to change the names, meaning they will be used in federal communications and on official maps, but the Post reported “it was not immediately clear whether the order mandates use of the new names in schools or in non-federal settings.”
A press release issued by the White House Office of the Press Secretary shortly after Trump was sworn in states, among a long list of other priorities, “American landmarks will be named to appropriately honor our Nation’s history.”
Other executive orders expected to be signed Monday include major steps to crack down on immigration and dismantle diversity initiatives in the federal government, The New York Times reported.
“Mr. Trump will also act unilaterally to end electric vehicle mandates passed by the Biden administration, walk back protections for transgender students and suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months,” the newspaper reported.
Trump, in his December speech during a conference hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action, reiterated a pledge he made during his first term as president to change the name of Denali.
“McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” Trump said. “They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people.”
“President McKinley was the president that was responsible for creating a vast sum of money in the United States that Teddy Roosevelt then spent, so let’s say that they were both excellent presidents, but McKinley did that and that’s one of the reasons that we’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley, because I think he deserves it. I think he deserves it. There’s lots of things we can name, but I think he deserves it. That was not very gracious to somebody that did a good job. And as you know he was assassinated.”
A Jan. 15 column by Jamelle Bouie in The New York Times states McKinley appears to have emerged as Trump’s favorite former U.S. president — rather than Andrew Jackson, who was often cited during Trump’s first term — due to McKinley’s aggressive action on imposing tariffs, which Trump is also pledging.
Although it is impossible to say with any confidence that Trump believes one thing or another, it does seem that he views McKinley as a model president, a standard-bearer for the high-water mark of American power,” Bouie wrote.
Noting McKinley was in office from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. Bouie added “like his ill-fated precursor, Trump is the favored candidate of oligarchs; he may even owe his second term to the largess of the 21st-century equivalent of a robber baron. And McKinley and Trump share a kind of political vision, one of untrammeled power for hoarders of wealth and owners of capital — an America by business, of business and for business, whose main export is imperialistic greed.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
