Trump signs order shrinking Bears Ears, Grand Staircase monuments
Bipartisan push to invest in US national parks
Bret Baier moderates a discussion with Representatives Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Jared Huffman (D-CA) about the ‘America the Beautiful’ initiative. This bipartisan effort seeks to modernize national parks ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, investing $1.9 billion annually. They emphasize national parks as common ground, beloved by all Americans, and crucial for our shared heritage.
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order drastically shrinking the size of two national monument areas in Utah on Monday.
The order applies to the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, shrinking their total coverage by roughly 90% from 3 million acres to 300,000. The areas were established as federal monuments by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2016, respectively.
“They took the land from the people quite honestly,” Trump said during the Monday signing ceremony. “We’re giving it back.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox also attended the signing and praised the move, saying the original size of the monuments was far too expansive.
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President Donald Trump after signing an executive order to drastically shrink two national monuments in Utah, paving the way for fossil fuel extraction and mining. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
“We believe that under the Antiquities Act, it’s very clear that these monument designations are supposed to be the smallest area possible to protect the antiquities, and these multimillion-acre monuments that are bigger than the state of Delaware certainly do not fit that designation,” he said.
Local Native American groups have criticized the move, however, as both monument areas contain parts of their history, including cliffside villages and petroglyphs.
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Red rock formations in the “Valley of the Gods” on April 22, 2026, in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. Bears Ears has been a controversial monument since it’s creation in December 2016. (George Frey/Getty Images)
“From a Navajo perspective, Bears Ears is not simply a piece of federal public land,” said Davina Smith-Idjesa, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. “This is a living cultural site that holds our histories, our ceremonies, our traditional foods and medicines and our ancestors’ footprints.”
Protections for national monuments apply to the surrounding landscape as well, preventing drilling, mining and construction. The original designations for the two monuments contained large deposits of coal and uranium.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox welcomes President Joe Biden to the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Aug. 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (George Frey/Getty Images)
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Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have pushed for using more federal land to expand U.S. energy production, clearing the way for mining and oil drilling in Alaska as well.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
