Trump on his first day in office last month signed an executive order to rename the iconic 20,310-foot (6,190-meter) mountain in Denali National Park and Preserve for McKinley, saying a 2015 decision by the Obama administration to recognize the peak as Denali instead of Mount McKinley was “an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements and his sacrifice.”.
Alaska's Republican U.S. senators have introduced legislation seeking to designate North America’s tallest peak as Denali — weeks after President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the name to revert to Mount McKinley.
The name was formally recognized by the U.S. government until 2015, when Obama's Interior secretary, Sally Jewell, announced the renaming of the peak to Denali "in recognition of the traditions of Alaska Natives and the strong support of the people of Alaska.” The state had had a longstanding request for the mountain to be renamed Denali but had faced opposition from Ohio lawmakers for years.
William McKinley, the 25th president, hailed from Ohio and never visited Alaska, but a prospector dubbed the peak “Mount McKinley” in 1896 — the year McKinley went on to be elected president.
During Trump's first term, in 2017, the senators pushed back when Trump brought up the idea of having the peak's name revert to Mount McKinley.
