(AFP) – Donald Trump’s order to change the name of the highest mountain in the United States faced pushback Friday from members of his own party. Alaska’s Republican-dominated senate voted overwhelmingly against his plan to ditch the Indigenous name Denali for the huge peak, which Trump has rechristened Mount McKinley.
The president has unleashed a flood of executive orders in his first few days in the White House as he attempts to remake the US government. Orders have included mass pardons for pro-Trump rioters, a federal hiring freeze, and an attempt to overturn the constitutionally mandated practice of granting birthright citizenship. But his order to rename the 20,300-foot (6,200-meter) Denali drew the ire of Alaska’s state legislators.
A resolution passed unanimously by the Alaska state senate on Friday urged Trump to rethink his plan. “The name Denali is deeply ingrained in the state’s culture and identity,” the motion said. “Residents of the state believe that the names of the geographic features in the state should be determined by state residents and representatives.”
The motion, which earlier cleared the lower chamber by a sizable majority, notes that state lawmakers called for the mountain to be known by its Indigenous name as far back as 1975. Four decades later, then-president Barack Obama officially recognized that push and dropped the moniker Mount McKinley, which had been the peak’s official name since 1917. It was coined in honor of Republican president William McKinley who served in the Oval Office from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.
The resolution by the state legislature appeared unlikely to change Trump’s mind, but was notable as a rare display of disobedience from members of his largely quiescent Republican Party.
© 2024 AFP
