Trump Gives Back Millions Of Acres Of Public Lands

Recently, President Trump returned much of the land that the Obama administration stole from multiple states under the Antiquities Act.

The act, passed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, was originally designed to prevent looting of Indian artifacts from archeological sites. But since then, the act has been abused and perverted in order to justify the federal government seizing land to turn into national monuments at will. This prevented the lands from ever being used by private citizens for other needs.

However, in his quest to roll back as many regulations as possible, Trump decided to set millions of acres of public land free from federal regulations.

Trump signed two executive orders to shrink two national monuments—Bears Ears by 85%, and the Grand Staircase-Escalante in half. These monuments were created originally by Presidents Obama and Clinton, respectively. The move followed a review conducted in April by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on monument boundaries.

Zinke stated that this move by the Trump administration is part of a larger picture of scaling back the government and overreach in general.