President Donald Trump on Monday issued an executive order to change the name of North America’s highest mountain from Denali back to Mount McKinley.
“We will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs,” Trump said during his second inaugural address from the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
“President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman, and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama,” he added.
Trump’s executive order states that the U.S. Interior Department secretary will reinstate the name Mount McKinley within 30 days. However, Denali National Park and Preserve will retain its name, the order says.
[Trump signs executive order meant to boost development of Alaska’s ‘extraordinary’ natural resources]
The order, tilted “restoring names that honor American greatness,” was one of dozens that the Republican president signed on his first day back in the White House.
The same order also seeks to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
The federal government named the peak McKinley in 1896. Former President Barack Obama’s administration ordered that the mountain be renamed as Denali in 2015. The name change followed years of advocacy by Alaska Native officials and groups.
Trump’s executive order says that William McKinley had “championed tariffs” that grew the U.S. economy, and “heroically” led the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War.
[More coverage of the Trump’s first day as president]
McKinley was assassinated during his second term in 1901. He was succeeded by Teddy Roosevelt.
Changing the mountain’s name to Denali was “an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice,” Trump’s executive order said.
[Earlier coverage: Trump wants to change the name of Denali back to Mount McKinley]
During his first term in office, Trump floated reverting the mountain’s name to McKinley. But the effort never advanced. In December, he vowed to again change the mountain’s back.
Alaska’s two Republican senators have strongly opposed Trump’s proposed name change.
“I strongly disagree with the President’s decision on Denali,” U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said on Monday through a prepared statement. “Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial.”
I strongly disagree with the President’s decision on Denali. Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time…
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) January 21, 2025
Sen. Dan Sullivan on Monday did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s proposed name change for Denali.
In December, Sullivan through an aide, said that he “prefers the name that the very tough, very strong, very patriotic Athabaskan people gave the mountain thousands of years ago — Denali.”
Sullivan, Murkowski and U.S. GOP Rep. Nick Begich watched Trump’s second inauguration live from inside the Capitol rotunda, according to social media.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Trump ally, was in Washington D.C. to watch the inauguration. He has not spoken publicly about the Republican president’s plans to rename Alaska and North America’s highest mountain — neither has Begich.
Begich and Dunleavy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The name “Denali” is derived from the Koyukon name and is based on a verb theme meaning “high” or “tall,” according to linguist James Kari of the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in the book “Shem Pete’s Alaska.”
Trump suggested changing the name back when he was president in 2017 and both Murkowski and Sullivan objected, Sullivan said in remarks to the Alaska Federation of Natives annual conference, according to an ADN article at the time. The senators met at the White House with Trump and then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to discuss Alaska issues, Sullivan said, including reversing Obama executive actions the senators had opposed.
At the end of the meeting, Sullivan said, “He looked at me and said, ‘I heard that the big mountain in Alaska also had — also its name was changed by executive action. Do you want us to reverse that?’”
He and Murkowski “jumped over the desk — we said, ‘no! No. Don’t want to reverse that,’ ” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he told the president Denali was the name given to the mountain by the Athabascan people more than 10,000 years ago. And Sullivan’s wife is Athabascan. If “you change that name back now, she’s going to be really, really mad,” he said he told the president.
“So he’s like, ‘all right, we won’t do that,’ ” Sullivan said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Publish date : 2025-01-20 15:59:00
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