Trump Slashes Utah Monuments by Millions of Acres Again
Utah’s federal land ping-pong match is back on as Donald Trump chops two national monuments down to a fraction of their size.
Donald Trump just signed executive orders chopping two massive national monuments in Utah — Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears — down to tiny remnants of their former selves. This redrock wilderness has basically been stuck in an endless partisan game of ping-pong: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama created them, Trump shrunk them in his first term, Joe Biden restored them, and now Trump is shrinking them all over again.
The White House claims the huge designations stretched federal law by protecting giant landscapes instead of small historical items. Trump even argued the protections prevented basic public recreation — despite state wildlife officials explicitly confirming that hunting and fishing were completely legal in both monuments.
Environmentalists are already filing lawsuits, warning that removing protection opens up millions of acres to potential oil, gas, and mining leases within two months.
Alternating land boundaries every four years definitely turns national park cartography into a high-stakes sport.
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