President Trump’s birthday is June 14, which additionally occurs to be Flag Day.
To rejoice, the president desires to supply free admissions that day to the nation’s nationwide parks, a self-serving gesture, little doubt, however one that’s no shock for a person who spent a lot of his grownup life plastering his title on the perimeters of buildings, airplanes and on line casino motels.
However that isn’t an actual drawback. The general public ought to take each alternative to take full benefit of the huge choices of the Nationwide Park Service.
The issue is that the free admission profit is being eliminated subsequent yr for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, a blatant swipe at African Individuals and the nation’s civil rights historical past.
“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Cornell William Brooks, a Harvard Kennedy College professor and a former NAACP president, wrote on social media concerning the new coverage.
President Donald Trump pauses earlier than chatting with troops by way of video from his Mar-a-Lago property on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, in Palm Seaside, Fla. (AP Photograph/Alex Brandon)
Different days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Structure Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).
The brand new free-admission coverage takes impact Jan. 1 and was certainly one of a number of adjustments introduced by the Nationwide Park Service late final month.
One other introduced change was greater admission charges for worldwide guests, an “America-first entry fee policy” that might cost worldwide vacationers as much as an additional $100 to enter a few of the hottest websites, whereas leaving them out of fee-free days reserved for Individuals.
Overseas vacationers will even see costs for his or her annual park passes rise to $250, whereas U.S. residents will proceed to be charged $80.
“These policies ensure that US taxpayers, who already support the National Park System, continue to enjoy affordable access, while international visitors contribute their fair share to maintaining and improving our parks for future generations,” mentioned Inside Secretary Doug Burgum.
May there be something extra petty than a president punishing overseas vacationers? It’s a surprise he didn’t increase the charges for Black folks, too.
The MLK Day and Juneteenth snubs are solely the newest assaults on Blacks and folks of coloration.
FILE – Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., speaks to reporters in Birmingham, Ala., Might 9, 1963. (AP Photograph)
Since his first day in workplace once more, Trump has tried to dismantle range throughout the federal authorities, downplaying the nation’s racist historical past whereas whitewashing the civil rights victories of Black Individuals.
Trump doesn’t even attempt to disguise his contempt anymore.
After years of dancing round whether or not or not he known as Haiti and different Third World hotspots “s—hole countries,” Trump leaned into the phrase and did it once more.
“Remember I said that to the senators?” Trump mentioned final week throughout a speech in Pennsylvania. “Our country was going to hell. And we had a meeting, and I say, ‘Why is it we only take people from s—hole countries, right? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? Let us have a few from Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Do you mind?’”
Welcome to the Nationwide Park Service. Please have your passports out for inspection.
The brand new entry price coverage will even be a logistical nightmare for Park Service workers. Screening guests for nationality will solely make traces longer, and improve overseas resentment.
And, I don’t like the best of getting to show I’m a citizen each time I wish to go to the Lincoln Memorial.
Different nations, together with Egypt, Thailand and Cambodia, additionally cost greater entry charges for worldwide vacationers to go to nationwide parks and points of interest.
However that is America. Do we actually wish to be like them?
