At an event in Phoenix this past weekend, President-elect Donald Trump announced he wants to change the name of Denali back to Mt. McKinley.
In 1917, the federal government officially named the mountain after President McKinley. However, Alaskan officials and local Native groups pushed to change the name for years. Eventually, the official name was changed to Denali in 2015 during the Obama administration.
At the event, Trump praised President McKinley for his tariff policies. He then went on to claim renaming the mountain Denali was unjust.
“They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people,” Trump said, “That was not very gracious to somebody that did a good job.”
Alaskan Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan quickly responded, pushing back against the proposed change. Both Senators expressed their support of the name Denali.
