Stephen A. Smith gives his take on Trump’s new interest in the Washington Commanders: “I think it’s him being evasive”

President Donald Trump made an odd foray into the world of NFL over the weekend, demanding that the Washington Commanders changes their name.

Formerly known as the ‘Washington Redskins’ the team opted for a rename in 2020 as the previous moniker was considered offensive to Native Americans. Trump threatened to withhold investments in the team, writing on social media: "I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington."

Trump also called for the Cleveland Guardians, previously the ‘Indians’, to revert to their former name. The President has made a number of attempts to roll-back some name changes made due to reasons of cultural sensitivity. However ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith has suggested that Trump’s latest bold demand is actually an attempt to reassert some political control.

“I think that the president’s being petty. I think it’s him being evasive,” Smith began. “I’ll leave the political evaluations to other people, but nevertheless there are millions upon millions of people in the United States of America that are not necessarily happy.”

He continued: “It’s just him catering to his base to make sure that he serves to appease them in some way, to distract them from other issues, including the Epstein files, by the way. Because a lot of people associated with the MAGA right want those files released.”

Over the past week Trump has been under increasing pressure to release all the information related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died while awaiting trial for the sex trafficking of minors.

Trump and his team had made it a major talking point of his successful re-election campaign last year, promising to release all the files related to Epstein. Many of Trump’s supporters have called on him to make public everything that the Justice Department knows about Epstein’s activities, but nothing has so far been forthcoming.

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