President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to increase entry fees to U.S. national parks for international visitors in order to “improve services, access, and affordability for Americans.”

The order, titled Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks, directs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who oversees the National Park Service, to raise the fees to improve maintenance, infrastructure, and conservation.

“Charging higher entrance fees to foreign tourists is a common policy at national parks throughout the world that supports both conservation and affordable access for residents,” the White House said in a statement. “Increasing entry fees at national parks for foreign visitors will fuel investment in our national parks, reduce the maintenance backlog, construct critical infrastructure improvements, and support conservation projects that improve our majestic national parks.”

Currently, about 100 of the country’s 433 park service sites charges a fee to enter.

The order also increases access for American families by “directing the National Park Service to ensure that U.S. residents receive priority access in any permitting or reservation systems.”

The surcharge is a matter of fairness, the White House said. Since Americans pay for the national parks through their taxes, they are, in effect, currently paying more to visit their parks than foreign visitors.

“President Trump is ending this unfair situation and putting Americans first,” the White House said.

Moreover, the initiative aims to build on the Great American Outdoors Act, which the White House called the “single largest investment in America’s national parks and public lands in history.” The order also accused the Biden administration of increasing the park service‘s maintenance backlog by $8 billion.

“When President Trump signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020, the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog was $14.9 billion. Under the Biden Administration’s mismanagement, the maintenance backlog grew to over $22.9 billion,” the statement said.

Burgum said on X that the executive order will “ensure visitors from around the world contribute to preservation,” and that “our parks stay accessible, sustainable, and protected for generations to come.”

The Interior Budget in Brief for Fiscal Year 2026 projects that the new surcharge from foreign visitors will generate more than $90 million “to keep national parks beautiful.”

However, many advocacy groups have criticized the president’s effort through Department of Government Efficiency—DOGE—to downsize the park service’s personnel and budget. Approximately 1,000 park service employees were laid off in February, CBS News reported.

The National Parks Conservation Association said on Thursday that “since the Trump administration took office, the [National] Park Service has lost 24% of its permanent staff—that’s nearly a quarter of the workforce gone, along with decades of irreplaceable knowledge and expertise.”

The new executive order also revoked a memorandum signed by former President Barack Obama on January 12, 2017, which promoted “Diversity and Inclusion Inside National Parks, National Forests and Other Public Lands and Waters.” This move aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts to terminate all DEI programs within the federal government and adopt a merit-based approach in the hiring process.

The post Trump Signs Order Raising Park Fees for Foreign Tourists appeared first on The Daily Signal.