Trump renames North America’s tallest mountain: “He was a great president”

Donald Trump and Barack Obama haven’t been able to agree on much during their political careers, which now extends to the naming of North America’s tallest mountain.

Why was Denali renamed Mount McKinley?

On Sunday, president-elect Trump revealed he would be renaming Denali, Alaska natives' name for the continent’s tallest mountain, after William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president who was in office between March 1897 and September 1901, when he was assassinated in Buffalo, New York.

The local Koyukon people, who live in the area around the mountain, have referred to its peak as Denali for centuries. However, it was first renamed Mount McKinley by a gold prospector in 1896 after the Republican had won his party’s nomination for president.

Obama removes McKinley tribute, reinstates Denali

The federal government of the United States officially recognised the summit, which has an elevation of more than 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), as Mount McKinley between 1917 and 2015, at which point Obama reinstated its ‘original’ name on the basis that McKinley had never visited the mountain and had “no significant historical connection” to it or Alaska. The Alaska Board of Geographic Names had previously reverted back to Denali 40 years earlier in 1975.

Now, however, a new chapter of the long-running naming battle will begin, as Trump revealed during a speech to supporters in Phoenix at the weekend.

William McKinley: “a great president”

“They took his name off Mount McKinley. He was a great president. My administration will bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it.”

According to the White House’s website, McKinley’s standout achievements during his time as president were “leading the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War and raising protective tariffs to promote American industry”.

At the age of 58, McKinley was shot twice by an anarchist while standing in a receiving line at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition, dying eight days later.

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