It’s not just a mountain. Denali, named by native Alaskans, means “high one” and is the tallest peak on our continent. Donald Trump has now officially changed the name back to Mt. McKinley.
As one Alaskan said in an AP story, “I don’t know a single person that likes the idea, and we’re pretty vocal about it. Denali respects the Indigenous people that have been here and around Denali for tens of thousands of years.” Indeed, even Alaska’s two Republican senators oppose the Trump action.
But Trump’s order is not just a one off. It’s part of a white power agenda. Why respect Native Americans, when you can cheapen them with a White colonialist honorific? As has been pointed out recently, President McKinley never set foot in Alaska.
Nine U.S. military bases named for Confederate generals had those names struck by Congress in 2022. Now Pete Hegseth says the Confederate names should be restored. Why be satisfied with Fort Liberty, when we can revert to Fort Bragg? Braxton Bragg, after all, committed insurrection against the United States to keep Black people enslaved. Bragg, incidentally, lost almost every battle he fought. Not the kind of “warrior culture” Hegseth so admires.
Of course, the point for MAGA is to keep Whites in control. Just as all the Confederate statues erected in the early 20th century were to keep Blacks in their place.
Same with abolishing DEI or ending PEPFAR. Who cares if millions of Africans die of HIV? Certainly not this brand of Christians now in power. Deporting as many brown people as possible is in vogue. As Trump told a gathering of millionaires last year, “Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries, Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?” Nice countries are White countries.
Danes are likely on Trump’s enemies list now because they won’t let him grab Greenland the way McKinley grabbed Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines with his fake Spanish American War. “Remember the Maine!”
McKinley’s pro-business, tariff and imperialist policies certainly burst America onto the world stage, but the legacy costs were enormous.
And here’s another McKinley horror that is rarely mentioned. Loyal listeners of my radio show will remember our discussions about the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. Wilmington, NC, then the most populous city in the state, had a burgeoning Black middle class. When a biracial, fusion city government was elected in 1898, a mob of White supremacists set fire to Black businesses and the city’s newspaper office, murdered Black citizens at will (up to 300 by some counts) and drove thousands of others out of town. It was a violent coup d’etat. Citizens appealed to President McKinley to help stop the massacre and, later, to help what was left of the Black community rebuild. There was no response.
William McKinley is Trump’s new favorite president. And it’s easy to see why.