Donald Trump to Visit Roosevelt Library While Destroying Roosevelt’s Conservation Legacy

Written By Jack Merritt

As Trump Prepares to Visit New Roosevelt Library, His Administration and Burgum Continue to Eviscerate the Outdoor and Wildlife Conservation Legacy Roosevelt Built

HELENA, MT – Donald Trump is set to attend the July 1 dedication of the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota as a part of his corporate-sponsored Freedom 250 tour, Trump’s politicized and partisan celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. By visiting Roosevelt’s library, Trump is pretending to pay tribute to the ultimate conservation president while his own Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, systematically dismantles the conservation legacy Roosevelt spent his presidency building.

“Trump can play pretend all he wants, but Americans know this is just the latest distraction from his and Burgum’s destruction of Teddy’s outdoor and conservation legacy. No photo op will change the damage Trump and Burgum are doing to the wildlife, lands, and parks Roosevelt fought to protect for all Americans,” said Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks. “Roosevelt believed that preserving America’s natural heritage and outdoors birthright was a sacred obligation. Doug Burgum is destroying that heritage for Trump’s whims, allies, and political donors.”

Theodore Roosevelt placed roughly 230 million acres of land under federal protection, establishing the national forests, wildlife refuges, national monuments, and parks that define the great American outdoors and every Americans’ birthright. Burgum has responded by raiding upwards of $100 million in national park entrance fees to fund Trump’s D.C. vanity projects, slashing the parks budget, and using the 250th anniversary as cover for a pay-to-play political operation that has funneled public money to administration allies and awarded beneficial decisions to corporate sponsors.

Burgum openly advocates for the sale of public lands, and told anyone who supports the protection and conservation of public lands that they are not ‘financially literate.’ America’s outdoor economy generated $1.3 trillion in economic output in 2024, more than oil, gas, and coal combined. Doug Burgum, an ultra-wealthy former big tech executive, has willfully and gleefully attacked, undermined, and mismanaged America’s shared natural and outdoor resources. The once-popular North Dakota Governor has been condemned by his constituents. 

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which sits near the library’s Medora location, faces staffing cuts and a maintenance backlog that plagues parks nationwide. Burgum’s Interior Department recently put up thousands of acres of public lands up for sale for industrial oil and gas development near the park, coupled with dropping public land protections in service of extractive interests. 

“The corruption and failures of Burgum’s Reflecting Pool boondoggle is a perfect reflection of Trump’s swamp-filled legacy, not President Roosevelt’s,” concluded Save Our Parks’s Jayson O’Neill. 

Additional Resources:

To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.

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Jack Merritt
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