Now President Trump has done exactly that. In one of the first acts on his return to the White House, he issued an executive order restoring McKinley as the mountain’s official name. (The national park that surrounds it will remain Denali National Park and Preserve; changing it would most likely require Congress to amend the law that gave the park that name in 1980.) The McKinley name change was recently entered into the government’s Geographic Names Information System, which lists the official names and locations of geographic features in the United States.
Which raises a question: Do we really need another mountain named McKinley? In addition to what used to be called Denali, there are at least a dozen other mountains or ridges in the country named McKinley, including in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Montana, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Washington, according to the Geographic Names Information System.
Then again, William McKinley is a favorite of Mr. Trump, who has lauded that president’s championing of tariffs and expansionism. During his tenure, Hawaii was annexed and Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines were seized by the United States. “He should be honored for his steadfast commitment to American greatness,” Mr. Trump asserted in his executive order.
The president noted the name change in his recent address before Congress, adding, “Beautiful Alaska, we love Alaska.” But Mr. Trump’s decision has not gone over well with his crush. Even before he changed the name, a poll found Alaskans opposed it two to one. The State Legislature passed a resolution last month urging the president to reverse the decision. And the state’s two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, are sponsoring legislation to rename the mountain.
“In Alaska, it’s Denali,” Senator Murkowski said in a statement,
Emily Edenshaw, president and chief executive of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, said that the name Denali “reflects a profound spiritual and cultural relationship with the land” and “recognizes the enduring contributions of Alaska Native peoples.”
