LOVERRO: Trump is playing a game the Commanders, the District just don’t get

OPINION:

He was always there around this Washington Commanders stadium deal, like gas fumes around a refinery.

I suggested in February that President Trump was a wild card that could put any plans for a new stadium between the team and the District at risk:

“Could the Trump tsunami that has swept over Washington wreck plans for a new home for the Commanders on the RFK stadium site?”

The spark lit and the wave hit Sunday when the president threatened on social media to derail any plans for a stadium on the RFK campus unless the Commanders changed their name back to Redskins. 

The team, under pressure from league sponsors and officials, dropped the controversial name in 2020, changing it to Washington Football Team. One year later, they changed the name to the Commanders.

“The Washington ’Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team,” Mr. Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social. “There is a big clamoring for this.”

He followed that up with his threat to wreck the whole project.

“I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington,” Mr. Trump wrote. “The Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone.”

Not more exciting for the team and owner, Josh Harris, whose group purchased the team from Dan Snyder in 2023 and has made it clear numerous times they have no interest in returning to the old name or changing the current Commanders name.

Mr. Trump’s threat could result in significant costly delays to the stadium project, which could scuttle the whole thing and send the team back to Maryland to build a new stadium next to existing Northwest Stadium in Landover.

Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Commanders announced a deal at the end of April on the proposed $3.8 billion stadium that would require $1.1 billion in public funding. The deal included a July 15 deadline for funding approval from the D.C Council for the exclusive agreement. But council members, led by Chairman Phil Mendelson, had numerous questions about the agreement and let that deadline pass without any action. The council has scheduled public hearings on the proposal for July 29 and 30 and then is scheduled to take the month of August off.

Congressional Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer advised in a letter to Mr. Mendelson on Thursday that the council should vote sooner rather than later on the deal — or else.

“The Committee expects prompt decisions on such campus development proposals put forth by the District government without unnecessary and politically motivated delays,” the Republican lawmaker wrote. “The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate ‘any matter’ at ‘any time’ under House Rule X. “

This is rich, because three years ago, when the then-Democrat-controlled House committee was investigating financial irregularities and sexual assault allegations against Dan Snyder and the team, Mr. Comer told The Washington Times that “The Washington Redskins is not a priority for Republicans on the Oversight Committee.”

Mr. Comer was the sponsor of the bill that resulted in the transfer of the RFK stadium site federal land to the District with a 99-year lease.

Who prompted the Comer letter? I doubt it was Ms. Bowser. However frustrated she was by the council delays that resulted in missing the July 15 deadline for approval for the funding, introducing federal involvement into District business is a distasteful red flag for all city officials.

Mr. Harris has a relationship with Mr. Trump. He has been a financial donor, and, according to The New York Times, made regular visits in 2017 to the White House to advise administration officials on infrastructure policy.

If it was the team, they may have set off the spark that lit Mr. Trump’s fuse and could sabotage the entire project.

With federal intervention now on the table because of the Comer letter, Mr. Trump was asked two weeks later if he would step in if the D.C. Council failed to approve the deal.

“It’s a very important piece of property; it’s a great piece of property,” he said. “So, we’ll see. But if I can help them out, I will. You know, ultimately, we control that; the federal government ultimately controls it. So, we’ll see what happens.”

Now it was on Mr. Trump’s radar, and, according to his opponents, became fodder for distraction this weekend from the Jeffrey Epstein controversy that has dominated the media.

So where are we? If we take Mr. Trump at his word, even if the D.C. Council approved the stadium funding and agreement tomorrow, he would still do what he can to stop it unless the name was changed back to Redskins. That is not happening.

The Commanders have attached a sense of urgency to getting this stadium deal approved so they can move forward with plans that would have the stadium completed and ready for opening by 2030. If Mr. Trump has his way, it might as well be infinity.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.