Trump vows to rename Denali, North America's tallest mountain, as Mt McKinley

23/12/2024 12:24

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday he will rename Denali, Alaska natives' name for North America's tallest mountain, after William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president who was assassinated in 1901.



Democratic former President Barack Obama in 2015 officially renamed the mountain as Denali, siding with the state of Alaska and ending a decades-long naming battle. The peak had been officially called Mount McKinley since 1917.



Trump, a Republican, said, "They took his name off Mount McKinley," Trump said in a speech to supporters in Phoenix. "He was a great president," adding that his administration will "bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it."



The mountain, which has an elevation of more than 6,100 meters, was named Mount McKinley in 1896 after a gold prospector exploring the region heard that McKinley, a champion of the gold standard, had won the Republican nomination for president.



The U.S. Department of the Interior, in the 2015 order that was signed by Obama changing the name to Denali, noted that McKinley had never visited the mountain and had no "significant historical connection to the mountain or to Alaska."