Early on in Donald Trump’s second term, the president signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to start scrutinizing plaques, signs, exhibits and other materials at National Parks. The goal was simple: The White House was on the lookout for “corrosive ideology” that the Republican administration intended to tear down.
As 2025 nears its end, Team Trump is still fiddling with the National Parks in ridiculous ways.
The administration’s Interior Department announced last week that some annual passes to the national parks will feature a picture of Trump alongside an image of George Washington. As MS NOW reported, the agency also announced that entry to national parks will no longer be free on Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Juneteenth, but American visitors will be able to enter the parks without a fee on designated “patriotic” days, including Trump’s birthday.
The former development has already generated a federal lawsuit. The New York Times reported:
An environmental group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the National Park Service’s plan to emblazon President Trump’s face on some annual passes to national parks starting Jan. 1.
The suit, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia by the Center for Biological Diversity, argued that it would violate federal law to put Mr. Trump’s visage on some of the passes, which have traditionally featured photos of scenic landscapes and wildlife.
According to the plaintiffs, the 2004 Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act requires the passes to display the winner of an annual photo competition held by the National Park Foundation.
“Blotting out the majesty of America’s national parks with a close-up of his own face is Trump’s crassest, most ego-driven action yet,” Kierán Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Times. As for the entrance fees, Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York introduced new legislation this week to guarantee free admission to National Parks on all national holidays, including Juneteenth and MLK Day, which Trump apparently doesn’t prioritize. The same bill would block presidents from unilaterally altering the free-admission calendar at national parks without congressional approval. There’s no reason to assume the proposal will gain traction in the Republican-led Congress, but if the White House hoped to make these changes without generating pushback, those hopes have clearly been dashed.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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