Trump signs executive order calling for foreign tourists to pay higher national park fees
It instructs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — who oversees the National Park Service — to "develop a strategy" to hike entrance fees and recreation pass fees for non-U.S. residents at any national park that currently charges for entry.
"To fund improvements and enhanced experiences across the park system, I've just signed an executive order to raise entrance fees for foreign tourists while keeping prices low for Americans," Mr. Trump said in a Thursday evening rally in Iowa. "The national parks will be about America first."
CBS News has reached out to the Interior Department and the National Park Service regarding when the fee hike may take effect or how much the surcharge for nonresidents could cost.
In its 2026 fiscal year budget proposal released in May, the Interior Department estimated that such a surcharge would generate more than $90 million annually.
Not all national parks charge an entrance fee, and for those that do, the fee varies. Generally, visitors can purchase either a standard daily or weekly pass to one specific park, or an annual pass that can be used at one park or in a certain region of the country. The Park Service also offers a more comprehensive "America the Beautiful" pass, which costs $80 and can be used at all national parks nationwide.
Some of the National Park Service's most popular sites — like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon — charge entrance fees of $20 per person or $35 per vehicle.
Mr. Trump also ordered the Interior Department to give U.S. residents "preferential treatment" over foreign visitors regarding "recreational access rules, including permitting or lottery rules" that parks might have in place. The order did not detail what those preferential treatment rules would entail, but some popular national parks have reservation systems for entry and camping during peak seasons.
The order Thursday also revoked a memorandum signed in January 2017, at the tail end of former President Barack Obama's second term, which sought to promote diversity and inclusion at national parks. The move appeared to be part of the ongoing effort by the Trump administration to scale back the federal government's diversity efforts.
The latest moves come as the Trump administration has sought to reduce the size of the National Park Service's staff. The Trump administration laid off about 1,000 Park Service employees in February as part of its push, led by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, to enact large-scale personnel and budgetary cuts across the federal government.
According to analysis released this week by the National Parks Conservation Association, an independent advocacy group, the Park Service has lost 24% of its permanent staff since President Trump took office in January.
In its 2026 fiscal year budget, the Interior Department also proposed cutting more than $1 billion to the Park Service, which would be the largest such budget cut in its history.
And in a separate executive order Thursday, the president also established the "Make America Beautiful Again" Commission, which will be tasked, among other things, with "expanding access to public lands and waters for recreation and incentivizing voluntary conservation efforts."
The commission will be chaired by Burgum and made up of members of the Trump administration. The order itself was spearheaded by Benji Backer, founder and CEO of the group Nature Is Nonpartisan.
"It's an honor to lead this nonpartisan initiative with the White House," Backer said in a statement Thursday. "Today is a great victory for the environment, but this is just the beginning."
In a June 19 interview with CBS News, Backer was critical of a language in early Senate versions of Mr. Trump's "big, beautiful, bill" that would have allowed thousands of acres of public lands to be sold for housing and infrastructure development.
That language was eventually removed from the version of the bill that passed the House on Thursday and heads to the president's desk for his signature.
"Just because something isn't a national park or a national wilderness area, doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve to be in public hands," Backer told CBS News at the time. "Donald Trump's legacy will not be good on conservation if this goes through."
contributed to this report.
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