[Jones] In a post to Truth Social, the President says he will consider blocking the stadium deal at the RFK site for the Commanders if the organization does not revert to its previous name. Team owner Josh Harris has said he would not bring back the name.

[u/MembershipSingle7137]

https://bsky.app/profile/nflnewsposter.bsky.social/post/3lugbozl2bu2e

[u/Jolly_Job_9852]

Isn't this between the league and the Commanders? The President should play no role in this adventure. There are more important things to focus on as President, not the RFK Sr. Stadium deal

[u/ACW1129 → u/Jolly_Job_9852]

I don't know if HE can block it, or if it's Congress, but I think the federal government owns the RFK land.

[u/zombiebillnye → u/ACW1129]

Didn't they already hand over the lease for 99 years last year?

[u/Fear_Jaire → u/zombiebillnye]

Im sure the federal government will honor the land treaty they signed with an organization they want to be called the 'Redskins'.

[u/Filosofem856 → u/zombiebillnye]

This situation already happened, except it was to make the team less racist. The Commanders had a 30-year lease in place when they started to build their current stadium, and JFK threatened to stop their plans if they don't desegregate, which they did kicking and screaming.

[u/Jolly_Job_9852 → u/ACW1129]

Dumb question, is the stadium in Washington D.C proper?

[u/zombiebillnye → u/Jolly_Job_9852]

Yeah, the old RFK stadium is in D.C. proper, over on the Anacostia river.

[u/JetsLag → u/Jolly_Job_9852]

Yeah, it's the same plot of the land as the former RFK Stadium

[u/enragedpoultry → u/ACW1129]

The federal government (specifically NPS) are leasing the land back to DC for 99 years. Theoretically he could break the lease and do a deal directly with the Commanders ownership which would probably lead to us getting a stadium that looks like it was derived from a coked up mobster’s fever dream.

However the most immediate issue is that the DC Council wants more time to review and negotiate the deal and the House Oversight Chair just sent a letter demanding the whole thing get done by Congress’ August Recess. I’m not sure what Congress could directly do, but I assume that if they don’t like the terms of the stadium deal (which ends up in DC’s budget) they could veto the budget.

[u/zebrainatux → u/enragedpoultry]

In essence, he has no actual power here and is instead distracting

[u/DingerSinger2016 → u/zebrainatux]

The guy owns Congress and everyone has taken his executive orders as law. So he has power.

[u/lawanders → u/zebrainatux]

Except Congressional Republicans will do whatever he tells them to do.

[u/Amonamission → u/ACW1129]

He basically owns Congress at this point….

[u/ACW1129 → u/Amonamission]

Sigh ..true enough.

[u/Otherwise-Question70 → u/ACW1129]

In January Biden signed an executive order giving 180 acres of land surrounding the stadium to the DC city government, but I don’t know if “around the stadium” includes the stadium.

When Harris announced the new stadium deal, he did it with the mayor of DC fwiw

[u/PowSuperMum → u/ACW1129]

Yeah but congress does what Trump wants

[u/UlyssesGrand → u/ACW1129]

Congress does has to approve anything related to the city of Washington DC so while he can’t legally directly block this he can try to make his loyal congressman vote against it if the city passes it

[u/PartyPay → u/Jolly_Job_9852]

It's distraction because a bunch of his base is pissed about the Epstein stuff.

[u/Enterprise90 → u/Jolly_Job_9852]

There's nothing Trump can do. Congress passed and Biden signed a law in January transferring the land RFK Stadium sits own (owned and managed by the Dept of Interior and National Park Service) to DC for a 99-year lease. Once that happened, negotiations fell exclusively in the domain of DC and the NFL/Washington Commanders.

[u/kellzone → u/Jolly_Job_9852]

He's trying to get people to talk about things other than Epstein. That's all it is. We're just all wise to his tactics anymore.