National Park Service photos showing Obama’s crowd size much larger than Trump’s inauguration crowd, even though he still claims he had the largest crowd ever: NPS
By Glynn Wilson –
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Still furious with the National Park Service for releasing photos showing his inauguration crowd size to be half the crowd who showed up in 2009 for President Barack Obama’s inauguration, President Donald Trump is out for retribution, just as he promised on the campaign trail in 2024. His proposed budget for 2026, released this week, includes a deep cut of $1 billion to run and maintain the country’s beloved national parks.
That’s nearly a third of the Biden-Harris administration’s budget for the park service of $3.57 billion for fiscal year 2025.
“This is the beginning of the end for America’s legendary national parks,” said one ranger who spoke off the record for fear of retribution. “Presidents have come and gone over the decades, and we’ve faced budget cuts before. But nobody has seen anything like this. He’s still furious about that picture, which proved his crowd size was not the largest crowd ever for a presidential inauguration.”
If approved by Congress, this will be the largest funding reduction in the agency’s 109-year history since President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill into law creating the special agency and a new kind of professional, an American innovation that has spread the park ranger hat and conservation idea around the globe.
Trump is also talking about turning some parks over to states, a move never before attempted by any president in U.S. history, as well as privatizing some. States typically don’t have the financial means or personnel on their own to run and manage the parks they already have in some cases. Private companies would not be steeped in the deep mission that created the parks, only caring about the profits from visitators and camping.
“Our national parks and forests are a legacy for the American people and the entire world,” Professor Ed M., a resident of Colorado, who takes his kids to a national park each summer, said. “National parks were first started in 1909 by a great American president, wilderness enthusiast Teddy Roosevelt, then nationalized in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson as an antidote to the horrors of WWI.”
“Now, Trump will go down in history as the clueless loser who destroyed them,” he said. “One man shouldn’t have the power to ruin it for all the rest of us.”
American national parks, with their protected natural beauty and unique ecosystems, are a marvel the world over. The idea first dreamed up by John Muir and President Teddy Roosevelt in the early 1900s in Coulterville, California – after camping in Yellowstone Valley for a week with no Secret Service agents in tow, left behind in the Hotel Jeffery brothel and bar – prompted many countries across the globe to adopt the idea and protect their own most special places in nature, both for conservation and public access.
Trump’s proposal comes at a time when national parks are more popular than ever. In 2024, over 331 million people visited national parks across the country. They became a haven for visitors and campers during the Covid pandemic, and visitation and even the idea of camping and spending time outdoors in nature grew exponentially, creating an economic travel boon.
If Trump’s budget cuts go through, the result would be fewer rangers, shuttered visitor centers, canceled programs and a serious decline in park maintenance, hindering the other idea behind national parks: Allowing public access for anyone without regard to income. Already many parks, including the Grand Canyon in Arizona, must rely on volunteers to fill the gaps.
The National Park Service, part of the Department of Interior, and the U.S. Forest Service, in the department of Agriculture, have both already lost thousands of employeess thanks to the cost cutting taking place at the hand of Elon Musk and his team of hackers, known as DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. More than 2,400 National Park Service staff, or more than 10 percent of the workforce, took early retirement under pressure, resigned or were fired, especially seasonal rangers desperately needed in the peak summer season.
The U.S. Forest Service has already lost about 3,400 employees, including rangers, trail crews and wilderness responders, just as the summer fire season approaches.
The impact of these layoffs is already being felt. Parks have had to reduce their hours, close visitor centers, and cancel programs and tours. At some sites, trails have been shut down indefinitely. Long lines of cars waited to enter the Grand Canyon over Presidents’ Day weekend because there weren’t enough workers to staff the gates.
Theresa Pierno, head of the National Parks Conservation Association, called this proposed budget cut “the most extreme and destructive” in the National Park Service’s history.
She said it threatens the very idea of national parks – places that are meant to be protected forever for everyone to enjoy, including future generations.
Giving park sites to states isn’t just risky, she said, it’s a betrayal of the public’s trust. States often don’t have the funding or resources to manage these lands properly, and if they can’t afford it, sites may close or even be privatized.
Many of the 430+ places managed by the National Park Service aren’t traditional “national parks” but include monuments, lake shores, battlefields, campgrounds and seasides, places important for natural beauty, species diversity and protection and cultural history. Handing them off to states could mean the end of their protection.
Another growing concern is fire safety. While wildland firefighters haven’t been laid off, many of the people who help evacuate visitors and check backcountry areas for danger have been. Without them, fire prevention efforts could be seriously hampered, especially during the dry season when wildfires are most common.
“Trump is always complaining about stopping wildfires. Then he needs to put his money where his mouth is and fund the forest service that helps protect our national parks and forests and keep park visitors safe,” one ranger said.
Local economies around parks will also suffer. Tourism brings billions of dollars to towns near national parks. Fewer visitors could mean major losses for small businesses that rely on that traffic. All of this adds up to a future where parks are less accessible, less protected and less safe.
Advocates are urging Congress to reject the proposed cuts and protect the parks, according to documentary filmmaker Ken Burns “America’s Best Idea.”
Trump is also proposing a cut of $5 billion to the Department of Interior. Much of the cuts target grants having anything to do with scientific research, especially related to global warming and climate change, as well as showing America’s history of racial diversity.
These lands belong to everyone. Unless public pressures is brought to bear on members of Congress, some of the most beautiful and historic places in the country could be changed or lost forever.
“I have been watching the Trump administration trying unsuccessfully to suppress the National Park Service with a mix of pride and amusement. The NPS is the steward of America’s most important places and the narrator of our most powerful stories, told authentically, accurately, and built upon scientific and scholarly research,” former National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said in a statement. He was the 18th Director appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate on September 25, 2009, and served until his retirement on January 3, 2017.
NPS photo by Neal Herbert
“The Park Ranger is a trusted interpreter of our complex natural and cultural history and a voice that cannot be suppressed,” he said. “Edicts from on-high have directed the NPS to not talk about “national policy”, but permission is granted to use social media for visitor center hours and safety. The ridiculousness of such a directive was immediately resisted and I am not the least bit surprised.
“So at Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta should we not talk about his actions to secure the rights to vote for African Americans in the south, or is that too “national policy”? At Stonewall National Monument in New York City, shall we only talk about the hours you can visit the Inn or is it “national policy” to interpret the events there in 1969 that gave rise to the LGBT movement? Shall we only talk about the historic architecture of the Washington, D.C. home of Alice Paul and Alva Belmont or is it too “national policy” to suggest their decades of effort to secure the rights of women can be linked directly to the women’s marches in hundreds of cities last weekend?
And as we scientifically monitor the rapid decline of glaciers in Glacier National Park, a clear and troubling indicator of a warming planet, shall we refrain from telling this story to the public because the administration views climate change as “national policy”? These are not “policy” issues,” he said. “They are facts about our nation, it is how we learn and strive to achieve the ideals of our founding documents. To talk about these facts is core to the mission of the NPS.
“During the Centennial of the National Park Service, we hosted over 300 million visitors (now that is huge) to the National Parks and most came away inspired, patriotic and ready to speak on behalf of the values we hold most dear,” he continued. “The new Administration would be wise to figure out how to support the National Park Service, its extraordinary employees and their millions of fans.”
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