President-elect Donald Trump announced plans on Sunday to restore the name of North America's tallest mountain to Mount McKinley, reversing a 2015 decision by the Obama administration

that renamed it Denali, the traditional name used by Alaska Natives. The mountain was previously named after William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president who was assassinated in 1901.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama officially renamed the peak Denali, aligning with the state of Alaska’s decades-long effort to recognize the indigenous Athabascan name, meaning “The High One.” This move ended nearly a century of federal recognition of the name Mount McKinley, which had been used since 1917.

During a rally in Phoenix, Trump criticized the change, calling McKinley "a great president" and expressing his intention to restore the mountain's former name. “They took his name off Mount McKinley,” Trump said. “We’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it.”

The mountain, which towers over 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), was first named Mount McKinley in 1896 by a gold prospector after hearing that McKinley, a supporter of the gold standard, had won the Republican nomination for president. However, McKinley, who served as governor of Ohio before his presidency, had no direct connection to Alaska or the mountain itself.

The U.S. Department of the Interior cited this lack of connection in its 2015 order to rename the peak Denali. The state of Alaska had officially adopted the name Denali in 1975 and had since pushed for federal recognition.

William McKinley, who served as U.S. president from 1897 until his assassination in 1901, is remembered for his leadership during the Spanish-American War and his economic policies promoting American industry. His supporters argue that naming the mountain after him honors his legacy, while opponents contend that the indigenous name better reflects the mountain's cultural and geographic heritage. Photo by Nic McPhee from Morris, MN, USA, Wikimedia commons.