Just when we thought Northeast Ohioans were finally beginning to settle in with the 2021 Cleveland Indians rebrand as the Cleveland Guardians, along comes President Donald J. Trump to stir up the hornet’s nest in 2025.

Trump, in a post to his Truth Social website Sunday, urged owners of the team to accept “MIGA (Make Indians Great Again)” and restore the American League team’s former yet controversial identity. He also passionately pleaded to the NFL’s Washington franchise to dump Commanders and restore the Redskins.

Further, he wrote, “Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago.”

Yes, times are different today. Many, if not most, Major League Baseball fans in these parts have had four seasons to acclimate themselves to the Indians’ name change, and the public furor over the Guardians is nowhere near the levels it encountered when first announced.

Most will recall the name change was the product of many years of divisive debate. Ultimately, Native American groups and others who found the Indians name and its accompanying cartoonish Chief Wahoo logo offensive and disrespectful won the day.

Even back in 2021, a Seton Hall Sports Poll found a plurality of more than 1,000 respondents did support shedding all Tribe imagery associated with the team. We suspect that level of support has only grown in the intervening years as fans have grown more accustomed to the Guardians.

Many also will recall the Guardians’ name was chosen to help end the division and unify the community behind its legendary MLB baseball squad, one of the original teams in the AL and the first in that league to break the color barrier by signing Larry Doby in 1947. The new name also was minted only after a process that included significant fan input and consultation with community leaders, according to the MLB website.

Yet, yes, we must still acknowledge that passions run deep among some diehard traditionalists who continue to sport Chief Wahoo T-shirts and rue the day the Indians died in Cleveland.

But we must support Guardians management, which filed a rapid response to the president’s baseball pleas.

Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said that changing the name back to the ‘Indians’ was “not something [he has been] tracking or [has] been paying a lot of attention to.”

“We’ve gotten the opportunity to build the brand as the Guardians over the last four years, and are excited about the future,” Antonetti said.

With the Guardians recovering from a midseason slump and now back in second place in the American League Central Division, we’d bet most fans for the short-term future are more concerned with watching the team rebound to champions of its division as the 2025 season enters its home stretch. They’re likely far less enthused about dredging up a divisive and often mean-spirited debate. That ship clearly has sailed.

And though we know the president has long been an opponent of the rebranding of the former Indians and Redskins, we find it a bit curious that he chose to wait until this week to vigorously renew his crusade with multiple inflammatory posts. Could it be a tool — along with his posts Sunday calling for the arrest of Barack Obama — to deflect attention away from the ongoing Jeffery Epstein saga that is eating away at his presidency?

One can’t be sure, but given the chief executive’s mastery in the art of distraction, one is left to wonder. One thing that should be certain, however, is that Northeast Ohio must not be burdened with any resurrection of a volatile debate that we thought had been settled four long years ago.

We therefore urge leaders of the Cleveland and Washington sports franchises to ignore the president’s appeals and focus on strong team play, not cheap political games.

With that in mind, go Guardians!