If conservatism is a disposition opposed to change, then you can expect conservatives to be annoyed when sports do innovative things like introduce the designated hitter rule in baseball or eliminate onside kicks in football. What really gets their goat, though, is when teams change their names for political reasons. One example came in 1995, when the owner of the Washington Bullets responded to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by choosing the nickname “Wizards” for his team. A partial exception to this rule came in 2007 when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays dropped the “Devil” and become just the “Rays.” Some right-wing Christians had complained about the old moniker, but the primary purpose of the change was to create a new culture after a long period of futility on the ball field.

Of course, you don’t have to be a conservative to have some affection for tradition, and after a lifetime of watching Cowboys-Redskins games, it’s hard to picture the Cowboys playing a team by some other name. The Cleveland Indians don’t have much winning history, but as with the Cubs, that’s almost an appealing part of their identity. It’s what made the Major League films so amusing. More recently, the so-called “Tribe” has been a more respectable franchise and they have a loyal fan base as well as several star players. But their mascot “Chief Wahoo” has been recognized as a disgrace for decades now, and it’s hard to argue that the ownership has been respectful of the heritage they’re supposed to celebrate.

Nicknames related to Native Americans have been controversial for a while now, with many school districts and colleges choosing to abandon them in the face of criticism. This has been the case even in instances where there isn’t any deliberate disrespect involved. In the case of the Redskins, it’s almost strictly the name that’s the problem, while in other instances like the Atlanta Braves, Florida State Seminoles, and Kansas City Chiefs, it’s more related to how the fans behave, mimicking tomahawk chops, for example.

We seem to have reached an inflection point in our culture now where these kinds of things are no longer tolerable, and it looks like the Redskins and Indians will probably be finding new nicknames in the near future. Other teams will probably follow soon after.  This bothers the president.

I’m not sure what kind of “STRENGTH” Trump is referring to there. Is it the strength of a settler culture that feels no need to apologize for displacing a native population? If so, it’s the weakening of that settler culture that leads to the change. Trump promised to reverse this trend but he has only accelerated it.

If Trump meant somehow that Indian names were originally chosen out of a certain kind of respect, meaning perhaps that the Native population had been fearsome and worthy adversaries, well, that’s not how we want to look at our history anymore. We don’t want to divide Native peoples from everyone else.

In any case, it might be possible to honor Native tribes in sports but not with mascots like Chief Wahoo or names like “Redskins.”

Trump is trying to rally conservatives to his side and he will of course have some success. But general elections are not won by convincing your own voters to vote for you. Trump still campaigns like he’s trying to win a primary.