North America's Tallest Peak Could Get Its Former Name Back Amid Controversy

The 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump, took his oath of office on January 20, 2025, and with it, he signed a flurry of executive orders. These covered everything from birthright citizenship (enshrined in the Constitution) to the renaming of several landmarks, such as changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, or reverting Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley. Denali, one of the world's majestic mountains you need to see in your lifetime, is North America's tallest peak, at 20,310 feet high (6,190 meters). The mountain stands within the protective borders of Denali National Park and Preserve — which, at least at the time of writing, will keep the name Denali, no matter what happens to the mountain. 

From 1917 to 2015, this tallest peak was officially designated as Mount McKinley. In 1896, a gold prospector named the mountain after then-nominee William McKinley, who became the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until he was assassinated shortly into his second term in 1901. McKinley, originally from Ohio, never set foot on the mountain that would be his namesake, and never even went to Alaska. And despite the "official" name, Mount McKinley has always been known to Alaskans as Denali, or "the tall one" in the local Athabascan language, and has been called such for hundreds of years. In 1975, the government of Alaska began to lobby the federal government to call it Denali, as the locals always had. In 2015, President Obama officially renamed it Denali, honoring its roots and the wishes of the Alaskan people. 

Donald Trump's actual motivations around the renaming of Denali, a must-see place to visit in Alaska, are a little murky. When he announced the change in his inaugural speech, Trump hailed McKinley as "a natural businessman" who "made our country very rich through tariffs," which are a cornerstone of Trump's 2025 economic agenda. The official executive order, aimed at "restoring names that honor American greatness," states, "In 1917, the country officially honored President McKinley through the naming of North America's highest peak ... President Obama's administration, in 2015, stripped the McKinley name from federal nomenclature, an affront to President McKinley's life, his achievements, and his sacrifice."

In true Internet fashion, however, there's plenty of talk about the underlying intention of this executive order. The Reddit thread r/IndianCountry, in particular, is rife with speculation, suggesting it's a petty jab at Obama, catering to white supremacists, or simply embracing the nostalgia that propels the MAGA movement. Still others think this type of executive action by Trump is meant to distract from his true agenda, perhaps a more nefarious one, whatever it may be (theories abound on this as well). Whatever the reason for the name change — maybe a combination of all the above — it does not seem to be a popular idea with many. As Redditor u/SolidPainting222 eloquently noted, "Even ignoring the moral and cultural issues here, Denali is such a banger name I can't imagine changing it." 

Alaska as a whole has not responded well to Trump's idea of renaming Denali. Alaska tends to lean Republican and has voted red in nearly every election since 1960 (via Ballotpedia). Its two senators are Republican, and therefore, supporters of Trump (at least theoretically) — yet they both disagreed with this decision. "I strongly disagree with the President's decision on Denali," Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, who has spoken out against Trump in the past, said in a statement (posted on X, formerly Twitter). "Our nation's tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial." While showing support for Trump's other executive orders, Senator Dan Sullivan said in a video on X, "As I've said many times, I prefer the name Denali that was given to that great mountain by the great patriotic Koyukon Athabascan people thousands of years ago." 

Even in the Reddit thread r/conservative, which ostensibly leans right, several users want to keep the original Native American name. "Alaskan here: most of us, even conservatives, would rather have it named Denali," u/Don't Tread on Me writes. "It's the ancestral name of the mountain. We embrace our native and wild land." It seems clear that Denali, home to some of the most breathtaking views in the U.S., will remain Denali to the people, whatever the map may say.