Last Updated on May 5, 2025
America’s national parks are under attack. Under attack from fascist president Donald Trump. Under attack from Nazi Elon Musk and his illegal “Department of Government Efficiency.” Under attack from Republicans who don’t believe in the concept of public lands, only private lands, for sale to the highest bidding billionaire or corporation.
They don’t think much of “America’s Greatest Idea,” as documentarian Ken Burns described the parks.
On May 2, 2025, the Trump Administration released its budget plan for 2026 which would gut the National Park Service, jeopardizing the protection, maintenance and operation of our more than 430 national parks across the country. The administration’s budget calls for a cut of more than $1 billion to the National Park Service that if enacted would be the largest cut in the Park Service’s 109-year history.
“This is the most extreme, unrealistic and destructive National Park Service budget a President has ever proposed in the agency’s 109-year history,” Theresa Pierno, President and CEO, National Parks Conservation Association, said. “It’s nothing less than an all-out assault on America’s national parks.
Cuts of this magnitude would devastate our national parks, further pushing them into a financial hole. That may be exactly what this administration wants, similar to cuts to the Department of Education, Social Security, the Postal Service, and Internal Revenue Service. Destroy a department sufficiently enough to make it inoperable and then hand its responsibilities over to private industry – with a heavy kickback from the winning bidder.
Trump’s budget proposal comes after a record-breaking 2024 when the Park Service logged 331,863,358 visits. Despite their soaring popularity and the economic and cultural value they provide, the administration continues to systematically dismantle the Park Service—freezing hiring, forcing resignations, eliminating purchasing ability, canceling leases and banning travel.
“Americans love their national parks and want to see them protected, but this administration’s actions do not match the will of the people,” Pierno said. “This administration is trying to dismantle the Park Service from the inside out, slashing park staff and now attempting to give away hundreds of national park sites that protect our nation’s irreplaceable history and culture and inspire and educate millions every year.”
With a major workforce reduction still looming, the worst is yet to come.
Specific Park Service-related budget cuts include
- $900 million cut to the operation of national parks
- $73 million cut to park construction funding
- $77 million cut to recreation and preservation funding
- $197 million cut to Historic Preservation Fund
Republicans in House of Representatives Attack National Parks
At the same time, the House Natural Resources Committee majority (Republicans) released its portion of the reconciliation bill, proposing millions in cuts to the National Park Service. The proposed bill strips the Park Service of all remaining Inflation Reduction Act funding, including approximately $267 million mostly for park staffing. The bill also proposes increasing oil and gas leasing and drilling, jeopardizing national parks landscapes in the process.
While the bill removes vital park staffing funds, it proposes adding $150 million for events and celebrations related to America’s 250th anniversary – events and celebrations sure to coincide with Trump and the Republicans’ white supremacist version of American history – and $40 million to establish a statutory park dubbed by the administration a Garden of American Heroes, a needless, foolhardy, project only a buffoon like Trump could imagine, and his Republican sycophants in Congress support.
The bill also includes mining activities near Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Elon Musk Runs the National Parks
Trump’s budget also proposes turning some national park sites over to states and removing them from the National Park System, a move that has never before been proposed by a president.
This effort coincides with a move in late April by the Department of the Interior, the federal agency with oversight of the national parks, giving a former oil executive and representative of unelected shadow president Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team wide authority to make significant changes to the Department, and management of the more than 500 million acres of federal land in possesses, including the national parks. Everglades National Park, Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Great Smoky Mountains are now under the control of Musk and DOGE.
The Department of Interior doesn’t receive a lot of attention compared to the Defense Department, IRS, or Department of Education, but it is the critical conservation and public lands department within the federal government.
Frankly, there’s no telling how Musk and the DOGE psychopaths will use these new, illegal, sweeping powers. Imagine your worst nightmare and start there. Remember, all DOGE activities are illegal as no authority exists for any such department within the government to operate the way it is.
“For generations, Americans have believed that some places are so special that they should be protected for all time, and for all to experience,” Pierno said. “That’s the mission Congress gave to the Park Service more than 100 years ago. The Park Service is our nation’s greatest protectors and storytellers. Our more than 430 national parks are our nation’s greatest legacy. Any effort to hand many of these sites over to the states is a betrayal, and the American people won’t stand for it. If members of Congress truly care about the future of our national parks, now is the time to speak out and put a stop to this.”
Pro-Parks National Billboard Campaign
On May 5, 2025, 300 billboards went up across the country targeting illegal cuts to staff and services at national parks. Billboards are going up in 40 different cities highlighting how Musk and the Trump administration’s DOGE has cut resources from one of our nation’s most treasured assets.
The billboards are paid for by working class advocacy organization More Perfect Union and will remain active for four weeks.
