US president-elect Donald Trump has said he will rename Denali, Alaska natives’ name for North America’s tallest mountain, after William McKinley, the 25th US president who was assassinated in 1901.

Democratic former president Barack Obama in 2015 officially renamed the mountain as Denali, siding with the state of Alaska and ending a decades-long naming battle. The peak had been officially called Mount McKinley since 1917.

“They took his name off Mount McKinley,” Trump said in a speech to supporters in Phoenix on Sunday. “He was a great president,” Trump, a Republican, said, adding that his administration will “bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it.”

  • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    Isn’t that a state’s rights matter? A state should be able to name its own landmarks.


    I checked. It seems ultimate authority rests with the US Board on Geographical Names, which is under the authority of the executive branch. He would be breaking lots of norms to just decree it so, but I think Trump has no fear is breaking norms.

    I guess I’d rather he worry about stuff like this that could ultimately be corrected in the future with the stroke of the pen than the stuff he wants that will be genuinely ruinous.

    • It’s only “states rights” when conservatives want to do something shitty that liberals don’t like. When it’s something liberals want, the conservatives will bring down the hammer of fasci- I mean, federalism.

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I think he will see that very few people give a shit what the mountain is officially called. People who want to call it “Mount McKinley” will continue to call it “Mount McKinley” and people who want to call it “Denali” will continue to call it “Denali”.

      • frunch@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        But he’s scoring points by rolling back an Obama order. He may not have dismantled Obamacare but this will serve as enough distraction until he finds something else Obama did that he can reverse. Obama had 2 terms – there’s lots for Trump to hunt down and roll back 🤡

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        See also: “PLUTO IS A PLANET!!!”

        In the end, a mountain doesn’t care what it’s name is and a space rock doesn’t care what you classify it as. No one’s forcing you to go with the consensus on a name. Go check with the Bill of Rights if you think otherwise.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    “They took his name off Mount McKinley,”

    Because it wasn’t his mountain, dipshit.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    I know they won’t, but I really want someone to ask Trump to tell them three things he knows about William McKinley.

    Because I am guessing that he knows two things about William McKinley:

    1. He was a president.
    2. They named a mountain after him.
  • t_chalco@lemmy.world
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    McKinley never even set foot in Alaska. This regressive skidmark is going to rename the tallest mountain in the world, base-to-peak, after a mediocre president? Native peoples of the region have been calling it Denali for centuries and, “the Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain to Denali in 1975, which was how it is called locally.” I know this is just contuining rallying of his voter-base and attempts to shake folks from paying attention to his continuous ramshackling of what’s left of American functionality, yet still it worked - my jimmies are rustled. I am displeased with myself. I can only hope he vists the mountain and then stuff stuffs…

  • FoxyFerengi@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    Hegained control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; restored prosperity after a deep depression; rejected the inflationary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard; and raised protective tariffs.

    Yep, can totally see why Trump has him on his mind

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      He was also a moron who got murdered by an anarchist at the height of popularity of anarchism in America because he thought it would be fun to head to a world’s fair-type event and stand in a tent and let people line up to shake his hand. He didn’t even have security checks. And this was after Lincoln was killed in a theater and Grant was shot in a train station. So Leon Czolgosz just pretended his hand was injured, wrapped the gun inside the bandage, walked up to McKinley and shot him point blank in the chest.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      It’s just a promotion of white and suppression of indigenous culture.

      There is no reason for this other than racism.

    • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world
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      Fun fact: someone correct me if I’m wrong (it’s the Internet, I really don’t need to ask), but as I understand it, Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz” was some sort of allegory/statement in support of the silver standard. Dorothy’s ruby slippers were only that color for the benefit of film, and in the book, they are silver, symbolizing silver as the way to fix all the problems. I don’t remember what the other things symbolized. But since “Wicked” is popular at the moment, I thought I’d share.

    • scutiger@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Protective tariffs are the opposite of what Trump wants though. He’s just using them as an offensive tool to threaten everyone.

  • passivelnk@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Ignore him. He’s trying to distract you from his failures. Don’t get angry at the distractions - get angry at the failures.

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    I thought this was one of his stated aims during his first administration. Or maybe his 2020 campaign. Ohioans prefer the name McKinley, even though it’s not their mountain.

    • KnitWit@lemmy.world
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      Ohioans also like to claim first in flight, even though it happened in NC.