President-elect Donald Trump said that he would restore the name of North America’s highest mountain peak from Denali to Mount McKinley.
Former President Barack Obama renamed the peak to Denali to recognize indigenous Alaskans.
“They took his name off Mount McKinley, that’s what they do to people,” Trump said at Turning Point USA’s AmFest.
“McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” he added.
“That’s one of the reasons that we are going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley, because I think he deserves it. There are lots of things we can name, but I think he deserves it. That’s not very gracious for somebody who did a great job,” he said.
McKinley’s great-great nephew, Masse McKinley, told the New York Sun, “I applaud President-Elect Trump for remembering McKinley’s contributions to this country, and for making this name change a possible reality.”
McKinley explained that his great-great uncle “possessed legendary leadership skills” and “ushered in a century of unrivaled golden age prosperity, much of what America still enjoys today.” He noted that he can “think of no better way to honor and commemorate the memory” of his ancestor “than to bring back the magnificent name of Mount McKinley.”
Obama’s 2015 order read, “Denali is a local Athabascan name for the mountain, which is the highest in North America and is located entirely within Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. The mountain was originally named after President William McKinley of Ohio, but President McKinley never visited, nor did he have any significant historical connection to, the mountain or to Alaska.”
