NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- President Donald Trump joined a long-running fight on Long Island over whether to scrap the Massapequa school district’s mascot, which features Native American imagery—as a deadline set by the state to remove the mascot fast approaches.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump said he supported keeping the Massapequa Chiefs logo on team uniforms and on school grounds.
“Forcing them to change the name, after all of these years, is ridiculous and, in actuality, an affront to our great Indian population,” Trump wrote in part.
“School Board, and virtually everyone in the area, are demanding the name be kept,” Trump went on to say, noting the Kansas City Chiefs haven’t changed their name.
The president said he’d asked the U.S. secretary of education, Linda McMahon, to “fight for the people of Massapequa on this very important issue.”
“LONG LIVE THE MASSAPEQUA CHIEFS!” he wrote.
Massapequa school officials, and officials from other districts facing the removal of their mascots, appealed to Trump to put his weight behind the issue after a judge ruled against them in March.
It all comes after New York state banned public schools from using Indigenous imagery in 2023, threatening to pull state funding from any district that does not retire their Indigenous-inspired names and mascots by the end of the 2024-2025 academic year.
The changes were also happening at the national level several years ago. For example, the Cleveland Indians changed their name to the Cleveland Guardians in 2021, and the Washington Redskins changed their name to the Washington Commanders in 2022.
Given New York's rich Native American history, the move by the state Board of Regents in 2023 impacted dozens of school districts statewide, including more than a dozen districts on Long Island. The majority have since changed their mascots featuring Native American imagery.
There were a number of holdouts though—and Massapequa was perhaps the most passionate among them. It made no commitment to drop its Chiefs mascot, which remains very popular among residents and school administrators as the state's June 2025 deadline approaches.
Students wearing Massapequa Chiefs sweatshirts and t-shirts applauded Trump outside Massapequa High School on Tuesday.
“Once a Chief, always a Chief,” said one teen. “There’s no reason why we can’t keep it. And Trump said like the Kansas City Chiefs—like no one’s taking their Chiefs thing, why do we have to change our Chiefs?”
“I support Donald Trump’s decision,” said another student. “Because I think it’s been here for so long, how are they going to just take it away?”
Tom Kelly, who has children who attend the Massapequa school district, said: “It is not done to offend the people who were here before, but to honor the people who were here before.”
Not everyone supports keeping the Chiefs mascot and similar mascots. An Indigenous Mascot Advisory Group made of tribal leaders rejected the idea that the names honor Native Americans, with one representative saying the changes are "long overdue."
And at Massapequa High School, one student said Trump should be worried about helping kids reach their future goals instead of the mascot.
"I just think that the president is more worried about a mascot over paying for kids' education is sad," she said.