America First: Trump Overhauls National Park Pass, Sparks Outrage

Paul Riverbank, 12/11/2025Trump replaces national park pass image with his portrait, igniting backlash and legal battle.

This week’s headline: Portraits of President Donald Trump and George Washington — not a mountain view, not a tumbling river — are set to replace the contest-winning photograph on the beloved pass next year. That decision didn’t just rattle park enthusiasts; it touched off a lawsuit and drew sharp lines across the nation.

The backdrop here is a government photo contest, which, by custom and law, has determined the pass’s design every year since its inception. This time, Glacier National Park’s image came out on top. But, in a move that bypassed the contest altogether, the Department of the Interior, under Secretary Doug Burgum, gave that winning photo a lesser spot reserved for a new “nonresident” pass. The main ticket for U.S. residents? It’ll bear Trump’s likeness, alongside Washington’s — neither image submitted to nor snapped on federal land, an unprecedented break with the rules.

The response came swiftly. On Wednesday, attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in a Washington, D.C. court, charging the Interior Department with flouting the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Their case is both legal and philosophical: the law, they argue, is explicit about how images are chosen; tradition, meanwhile, has always kept politics and personalities off the pass.

Kierán Suckling, the Center’s executive director, did not hold back, declaring, “Blotting out the majesty of America’s national parks with a closeup of his own face is Trump’s crassest, most ego-driven action yet.” The statement brims with sharp words, but it resonates with many Americans’ view of their public lands as transcending partisanship. Suckling wasn’t finished. “These parks are the pride and joy of the American people,” he said, “not canvasses for presidential branding.” Those remarks have ricocheted across both traditional news outlets and social media, picking up support — and derision — in equal measure.

Inside the corridors of power, the Interior Department has held its ground. Secretary Burgum called the decision part of “putting American families first,” tying the new passes to updated digital features and a price drop for residents. The new fee schedule, however, has drawn its own backlash: U.S. citizens will pay $80, but nonresidents face a $250 tag, with a $100 surcharge waiting at popular parks such as Yosemite and Grand Canyon. The separation into “resident” and “nonresident” passes is, to some, another controversial first.

If price wasn’t enough, the revised list of free admission days raised eyebrows. Trump’s birthday, June 14, will see gates opened free to Americans, while former staples — Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth — have been struck from the calendar. Reactions to that move split along familiar political lines. “Unfair” and “divisive” are among criticisms from opponents, while Trump’s supporters hail the shift as overdue recognition for his legacy.

From the White House podium, spokesperson Anna Kelly dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous,” even suggesting that critics should be grateful for the administration’s park initiatives. But beneath the rhetoric, there’s a sense that the stakes here aren’t just about a picture on a pass, or a one-day change in gate fees.

No president’s face has ever appeared on these passes—phrases like “America the Beautiful” have, until now, described more than a backdrop; they’ve signaled a belief in shared spaces above the clamor of politics. As the legal battle enters its first innings, what’s really at stake is a kind of cultural ownership: Who gets to decide how America’s landscapes are symbolized, and for whom?

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that this dispute, unlike most, has managed to spill out of the confines of bureaucracy to touch millions of families — newcomers and old-timers, hikers and sightseers — who carry that pass on road trips and backpacking epics, a small token of something bigger than themselves. In the months ahead, the courts will weigh statutory language and administrative process. But the bigger debate — what America chooses to picture on its public welcome mat — will linger, in parking lots and trailheads and the everyday talk of a country wrestling with what it wants to see when it sees itself.

For anyone who’s ever stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon at sunrise, or watched the Milky Way spill over a silent meadow in Yellowstone, the symbol printed on a simple plastic pass means a great deal. Typically, that pass — the America the Beautiful card tucked into the wallets of national park wanderers — displays scenes vast and wild, testaments to the scale and wonder of the country’s public lands. That tradition, cracked open this year, now sits at the center of a surprisingly charged legal fight, the kind that seems to say as much about America’s nerves as about its landscapes.This week’s headline: Portraits of President Donald Trump and George Washington — not a mountain view, not a tumbling river — are set to replace the contest-winning photograph on the beloved pass next year. That decision didn’t just rattle park enthusiasts; it touched off a lawsuit and drew sharp lines across the nation.The backdrop here is a government photo contest, which, by custom and law, has determined the pass’s design every year since its inception. This time, Glacier National Park’s image came out on top. But, in a move that bypassed the contest altogether, the Department of the Interior, under Secretary Doug Burgum, gave that winning photo a lesser spot reserved for a new “nonresident” pass. The main ticket for U.S. residents? It’ll bear Trump’s likeness, alongside Washington’s — neither image submitted to nor snapped on federal land, an unprecedented break with the rules.The response came swiftly. On Wednesday, attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in a Washington, D.C. court, charging the Interior Department with flouting the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Their case is both legal and philosophical: the law, they argue, is explicit about how images are chosen; tradition, meanwhile, has always kept politics and personalities off the pass.Kierán Suckling, the Center’s executive director, did not hold back, declaring, “Blotting out the majesty of America’s national parks with a closeup of his own face is Trump’s crassest, most ego-driven action yet.” The statement brims with sharp words, but it resonates with many Americans’ view of their public lands as transcending partisanship. Suckling wasn’t finished. “These parks are the pride and joy of the American people,” he said, “not canvasses for presidential branding.” Those remarks have ricocheted across both traditional news outlets and social media, picking up support — and derision — in equal measure.Inside the corridors of power, the Interior Department has held its ground. Secretary Burgum called the decision part of “putting American families first,” tying the new passes to updated digital features and a price drop for residents. The new fee schedule, however, has drawn its own backlash: U.S. citizens will pay $80, but nonresidents face a $250 tag, with a $100 surcharge waiting at popular parks such as Yosemite and Grand Canyon. The separation into “resident” and “nonresident” passes is, to some, another controversial first.If price wasn’t enough, the revised list of free admission days raised eyebrows. Trump’s birthday, June 14, will see gates opened free to Americans, while former staples — Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth — have been struck from the calendar. Reactions to that move split along familiar political lines. “Unfair” and “divisive” are among criticisms from opponents, while Trump’s supporters hail the shift as overdue recognition for his legacy.From the White House podium, spokesperson Anna Kelly dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous,” even suggesting that critics should be grateful for the administration’s park initiatives. But beneath the rhetoric, there’s a sense that the stakes here aren’t just about a picture on a pass, or a one-day change in gate fees.No president’s face has ever appeared on these passes—phrases like “America the Beautiful” have, until now, described more than a backdrop; they’ve signaled a belief in shared spaces above the clamor of politics. As the legal battle enters its first innings, what’s really at stake is a kind of cultural ownership: Who gets to decide how America’s landscapes are symbolized, and for whom?Perhaps it’s no coincidence that this dispute, unlike most, has managed to spill out of the confines of bureaucracy to touch millions of families — newcomers and old-timers, hikers and sightseers — who carry that pass on road trips and backpacking epics, a small token of something bigger than themselves. In the months ahead, the courts will weigh statutory language and administrative process. But the bigger debate — what America chooses to picture on its public welcome mat — will linger, in parking lots and trailheads and the everyday talk of a country wrestling with what it wants to see when it sees itself.