President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to restore the name “Mount McKinley” to North America’s tallest peak, reversing the 2015 decision by President Barack Obama to rename it “Denali.”
Speaking in Phoenix, Trump called William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president, “a great president” and said, “They took his name off Mount McKinley… We’ll bring it back because I think he deserves it.”
The mountain, towering over 20,000 feet, was named Mount McKinley in 1896 by a prospector celebrating McKinley’s support for the gold standard. Officially adopted in 1917, the name was changed to Denali in 2015 by the Obama administration, acknowledging Alaska’s decades-long campaign to restore the peak’s indigenous Athabascan name, meaning “The High One.”
The Department of the Interior noted that McKinley had no connection to the mountain or Alaska, and in 1975, Alaska designated Denali as the peak’s official name. Since then, state lawmakers had repeatedly pushed for federal recognition, only to face resistance.
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski criticized Trump’s proposal, reaffirming her support for Denali. “There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali – the Great One,” she posted on X.
McKinley, assassinated in 1901, was known for leading the U.S. to victory in the Spanish-American War and promoting industrial growth through protective tariffs.
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