DENVER—President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum today attended the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota.
Trump delivered rambling remarks that briefly touched on aspects of Roosevelt’s legacy—conspicuously leaving out his conservation achievements. Trump and Burgum have worked to systematically dismantle Roosevelt’s conservation legacy, from attacks on the Antiquities Act, which Roosevelt signed into law, to the U.S. Forest Service, which Roosevelt created to protect America’s natural resources from commercial exploitation.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Aaron Weiss:
“President Trump should have heeded Teddy Roosevelt’s advice before delivering that rambling mess of a speech: ‘There are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting.’
“Roosevelt took office during the Gilded Age when industrialists ran roughshod over America’s public lands. He worked to rein them in, warning America that ‘the rights of the public to the natural resources outweigh private rights, and must be given its first consideration.’ Donald Trump and Doug Burgum are using their power to do the opposite. They have taken every step imaginable to hand our public lands over to corporations that want to exploit America’s natural resources for private profit.
“In just a year and a half, Doug Burgum has cemented his place as one of the most anti-public land Interior secretaries in American history. And Donald Trump is undoubtedly the most anti-conservation president in history. Together, they are trying to return America to the Gilded Age that Teddy Roosevelt brought to a close. Their actions, just like Teddy’s, will far outlive them and have a negative impact on our public lands for generations to come.”
On June 30, North Dakota conservation leaders held a virtual press conference to sound the alarm on Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum’s mismanagement of America’s public lands and discuss Teddy Roosevelt’s legacy in the context of America’s 250th anniversary and the current anti-conservation administration. Here is a link to that recording.
Learn more:
Teddy Roosevelt ended the Gilded Age. Trump is bringing it back – Westwise
Unprotecting American Lands: How Trump Is Dismantling America’s Bipartisan Conservation Legacy – Center for American Progress