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President Donald Trump plans to eliminate Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands National Monuments in California, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times. Both monuments were designated in January by President Joe Biden at the request of Native American Tribes.
The reporting came amidst a weekend of confusion around the Trump administration's plans to slash national monuments. At 11:30PM ET on Friday, a White House fact sheet said Trump had signed an executive order “terminating proclamations declaring nearly a million acres constitute new national monuments that lock up vast amounts of land from economic development and energy production.” But the action wasn’t included in the Executive Actions and Orders posted that same night, and by Saturday afternoon, the national monument language in the fact sheet had been removed.
“It’s telling that the president made this announcement in the middle of the night, in hopes that Americans might not notice,” said Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Aaron Weiss in a statement. “There is already a huge backlash in the West against his cuts to national park and forest staffing. If he moves ahead with these attacks, it will only add fuel to the fire and increase the president’s unpopularity in the West.”
Recent polling shows that Westerners are strongly supportive of national monuments. Eight-eight percent of Westerners, including 81 percent of self-identified MAGA supporters, think national monument designations made over the past decade should remain in place. Only 9 percent think they should be removed.
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Congressman Grijalva represented his community fiercely, keeping his constituents and the climate at the center of everything he did.”
