Politics
Trump downsized national monuments. Biden restored them. Project 2025 calls for reductions again
They are sprawling lands of seemingly endless vistas and soaring plateaus. The red canyons are sprinkled with ancient rock art and historic Indigenous settlements. Normally nonconfrontational paleontologists were so wowed by their fossils that they sued to try to protect the land.
Two Democratic presidents moved to preserve this rugged terrain by creating a pair of national monuments in southern Utah — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase- Escalante.
President Trump radically reduced the borders of the two monuments, then their status was reversed again when President Biden took office and essentially restored protection of the original lands.
Another reversal seems all but certain if Trump retakes the White House. Experts say that this year’s election also brings attention to a broader question: What will happen to millions of acres of land concentrated in the West and owned by the U.S. government?
Trump has already shown his desire to throw open more of the land for oil drilling, mining and logging. And a Supreme Court heavily influenced by Trump-appointed justices has hinted it would like to review the power of presidents to create national monuments.
Trump appointees Brett M. Kavanaugh and Neil M. Gorsuch signaled this year that they want to review President Obama’s expansion of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument on the Oregon-California state line. And in 2021, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced his skepticism about another of Obama’s monument designations — of an underwater preserve larger than Yellowstone National Park off the New England coast. `
“Which of the following is not like the others: (a) a monument, (b) an antiquity (defined as a “relic or monument of ancient times”) or (c) 5,000 square miles of land beneath the ocean?” Roberts wrote in a statement, even as the court declined to take up the case.
And a controversial plan drawn up by conservatives as a blueprint for the next Republican administration would have Trump go even further if elected: It calls on him to repeal the Antiquities Act of 1906, the law that allowed presidents of both parties to make monuments of nearly 160 archaeological sites, historic landmarks and other outstanding scientific or historic locations.
Project 2025 says the monument law has been overused and that public lands need to remain open to a wide range of uses — including oil drilling, coal mining and recreation. That fits with Trump’s pledge, if he wins a second term, to “drill, baby, drill.”
Trump has said he had nothing to do with Project 2025 and though it has many ideas — “some good, some bad” — he does not intend to read it. The authors of some portions of the plan previously worked for Trump and at least some are expected to return in a second Trump administration..
Lawyer William Perry Pendley served in the first Trump administration, as the top official in the Bureau of Land Management, though he said its premature to speculate whether he would serve in a second Trump administration.
In Project 2025, Pendley accuses the Biden administration of “implementing a vast regulatory regime,” beyond that envisioned by Congress, and effectively banning almost all “productive economic uses” of federal lands managed by the Interior Department.
Environmental and tribal organizations have expressed the opposite view, noting that it was Trump who made the largest reduction in monument-protected lands in history and who would be likely to grant even more corporate access to public lands in a second term.
“Project 2025 is an example of what it would look like to sell off America’s natural resources and public lands to corporations with little-to-no regard for the environment, the climate, taxpayers, or wildlife,” wrote the Center for Western Priorities, a nonprofit that has resisted the push to transfer federal lands to state and private ownership.
Other issues — such as the economy, immigration, abortion and fair elections — have topped the agenda during the presidential campaign, while the environment, climate change and public land priorities have mostly taken a back seat.
That may be in part because most of the land owned by the U.S. government lies in Western states, most of which (with the exceptions of Arizona and Nevada) will not be closely decided in the presidential race.
The federal government owns less than 5% of the land east of the Mississippi River, but nearly half of the acreage in 11 Western states in the Lower 48, controlled mostly by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service.
Conservatives in many of those states have been campaigning for decades to try to wrest control of some of that property from the federal government, saying that decisions about its use should be made closer to home.
Environmentalists have countered that federal officials are in the best position to protect land that is treasured by all Americans, not just those in a particular state or community.
Last week’s vice presidential debate offered a rare moment in campaign 2024 in which the candidates’ sharply different views about public lands leaped onto the national stage.
Asked about the crisis in affordable housing, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance declared that “a lot of federal lands … aren’t being used for anything,” and “could be places where we build a lot of housing.”
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz disagreed. He said open space has been kept that way “for a reason” and that the country needed a better solution than saying, “Let’s take this federal land and let’s sell it.”
Republicans in Utah celebrated in 2017 when Trump rolled back the boundaries of sprawling Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, which lie roughly 100 miles apart in the southern part of the state. The then-president slashed Bears Ears by about 85%, down to 201,876 acres. He cut the second monument from 1.9 million acres to a little over 1 million acres.
Trump accused Democratic Presidents Obama and Clinton of setting aside far too much land to protect the archaeology and other resources that were the object of the monument designations.
“Some people think that the natural resources of Utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington,” Trump said. “And guess what? They’re wrong.”
Some Utah residents welcomed the Republican’s new designations and the jobs they said looser protections would be likely to create. But about 3,000 demonstrators, including tribal members, protested on the day of Trump’s action. They said the monument status helped protect cultural resources, including petroglyphs and centuries-old cave dwellings.
The shifting between Democratic and Republican administrations has meant a whipsawing between philosophies — with the Trump-era management plan for the Utah monuments remaining in place while Biden administration management plans are embroiled in a painstaking approval process.
The nonprofit that helps oversee conservation and programs at Grand Staircase-Escalante says it has been challenging to keep up with the flood of new visitors that came with the Trump administration’s less restrictive policies. The Trump management plan allows, for example, a doubling of the size of groups that can visit the monument, to 25.
“This doesn’t sound like a lot, but a group of 25 people leaves much greater amounts of human waste and other trash compared to a group of 12,” Jackie Grant, executive director of Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, said in an email. “Human excrement can take over a year to decompose in the desert environment of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Now imagine the impact of 500,000 to a million people pooping in a fairly limited desert area over the course of a year.”
The group size limit is expected to be reduced in the Biden administration management plan, which is nearing completion.
The Trump plan also opened more remote roads to use by all-terrain vehicles. The opening of the V-Road in the Escalante Canyons section of the monument has left the area — under consideration for higher protection as a wilderness area — marred by vandalism, trash and more human waste.
That damage came with little of the “economic expansion by way of natural resource extraction” that state officials had promised, Grant said.
Pendley, the former Trump BLM official, has been fighting for more state and local control of public lands since he served in the administration of Republican Ronald Reagan. He wrote “Sagebrush Rebel,” a book about Reagan’s fight against what he saw as excessive federal control of Western lands.
Pendley’s Project 2025 plan calls for a downsizing of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, saying the area should be governed by a historic agreement that predated the monument. It would allow greater harvesting of timber on BLM land, creating well-paying jobs and reducing fuel for future wildfires, Pendley argues.
The Wyoming-reared lawyer says that many laws enacted after the Antiquities Act — to protect endangered species and wild and scenic rivers, for example — create adequate protections for the outdoors.
Advocates for Cascade-Siskiyou and other monuments say presidents have used their monument-making power wisely. They point to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Denali in Alaska as among the many monuments that went on to become beloved national parks.
Dave Willis, a horse packer who lives on monument land in Oregon, has been fighting for creation and preservation of the Cascade-Siskiyou monument for decades. The intent of Trump allies to open the property to timber harvest is just part of a “scorched-earth policy with regard to all public lands,” he said.
“Americans really care about their public lands,” Willis said. “And when someone threatens them, they are not going to take it lying down. Trying to degrade public lands will put you on the wrong side of history.”
Politics
How Eric Adams Could Leave Office, and Who Hopes to Succeed Him
Mayor Eric Adams’s political future is in doubt after federal prosecutors indicted him on corruption charges in one of several inquiries ensnaring City Hall. Amid calls to resign, Mr. Adams has insisted he is innocent and that he is staying in office as New York City’s mayor.
Five main ways Adams could leave office
Mr. Adams, a Democrat, could decide not to run for re-election, but finish his term, which ends in December 2025. If he runs, he could lose to another candidate in the Democratic primary next June.
Three other ways Mr. Adams could leave office include:
The mayor could resign on his own. He could face pressure from key power brokers, or decide that it is in the city’s best interest for him to step aside.
Or, Gov. Kathy Hochul could remove Mr. Adams under the city charter. The complicated process is untested. So far, she has urged Mr. Adams to prove he can lead the city and to remove city officials under federal investigation, several of whom have departed.
Or, a five-member group, known as a committee on mayoral inability, could be formed to remove him under the city charter. An untried and complex process, it is one even critics of the mayor say is unlikely to happen because his appointees would be involved.
The members would be:
- the city comptroller, Brad Lander
- the City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams
- the longest serving borough president, Donovan Richards
- the city’s corporation counsel, who is expected to be Muriel Goode-Trufant
- and a deputy mayor selected by the mayor.
Four of the five members would need to decide Adams was incapable of serving.
In these three scenarios, Jumaane Williams, the current public advocate, would become acting mayor.
The process of choosing a new mayor
If Mr. Adams leaves office before his term ends, what happens next depends on the date he steps down.
A special election would be held to serve out the remainder of Mr. Adams’s term. It would be non-partisan with ranked-choice voting, a system where voters select multiple candidates in order of preference. Voters would have less time to get to know the candidates, and name recognition could be key. A regular election would have separate Democratic and Republican primaries, which also use ranked choice voting, and the winners of those would face off in a general election.
People who hope to succeed Adams
Four Democrats are already running against Mr. Adams in next year’s election for mayor, and more candidates are likely to enter the race if Mr. Adams is further weakened, or if a special election takes place.
Declared candidates
Brad Lander Dem.
City comptroller
Mr. Lander is a progressive leader who has argued that he is the best manager to run the city. He supports congestion pricing and has pledged to end street homelessness for severely mentally ill people.
Zellnor Myrie Dem.
State senator
Mr. Myrie is a progressive state lawmaker from Brooklyn who has proposed free universal after-school programs. He has supported bail reform and gun control measures.
Jessica Ramos Dem.
State senator
Ms. Ramos is a progressive state lawmaker from Queens who has focused on trying to make the city more affordable and has close ties to unions. She opposed a casino proposal in her district in Queens.
Considering running
Michael Blake Dem.
Former state assemblyman
Mr. Blake, a former White House aide under President Barack Obama, served in the state assembly representing the Bronx and lost a congressional race in 2020.
Joseph Borelli Rep.
Minority City Council leader
Mr. Borelli is a council member from Staten Island and a supporter of former President Donald J. Trump. He has pushed for property tax reform and has been critical of the city’s response to the migrant crisis.
John Catsimatidis Rep.
Businessman
Mr. Catsimatidis is the billionaire owner of the Gristedes grocery store chain and the conservative WABC radio station. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2013.
Alicia Glen Dem.
Former deputy mayor
Ms. Glen was a deputy mayor under Mayor Bill de Blasio and oversaw major projects such as the citywide ferry system. She is a chair of the Gateway Development Commission, which is building a new train tunnel between New York and New Jersey.
Zohran Mamdani Dem.
State assemblyman
Mr. Mamdani is a state lawmaker from Queens and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He wants to halt rent increases and highlight the voices of Muslim New Yorkers like himself.
Christine Quinn Dem.
Former City Council speaker
Ms. Quinn was the powerful Council speaker from 2006 to 2013, and finished third in the Democratic mayoral primary. She is now the leader of the city’s largest provider of shelters for homeless families with children.
Jumaane Williams Dem.
Public advocate
Mr. Williams is a progressive leader from Brooklyn who has criticized the mayor’s aggressive policing strategy. He has close ties with left-leaning groups including the Working Families Party, and has run unsuccessfully for governor and lieutenant governor.
Politics
Trump campaign seeks increased security as election draws near, including military aircraft amid Iran threats
The campaign for former President Trump has asked the White House for enhanced Secret Service security amid safety concerns in the final stages of the election, citing threats from Iran, Fox News has learned.
On Friday, President Biden was asked about the request by the GOP nominee for enhanced security protocols.
“As long as you don’t ask for F-15s. Well, look, I’ve told them to give him every, every single thing he needs as if he were a sitting president,” Biden said. “If it’s within that category. That’s fine.”
The Trump campaign cited serious threats from Iran for extra protection. It asked for temporary airspace restrictions on the campaign trail, motorcade drivers with tactical experience and vehicles like the “Beast”, the bullet-proof vehicle used by for Biden.
TRUMP BRIEFED ON ‘REAL AND SPECIFIC THREATS’ FROM IRAN TO ASSASSINATE HIM, CAMPAIGN SAYS
U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Rowe warning that Iran was actively trying to kill Trump.
Waltz asked that various aircraft, including military aircraft with defense capabilities, be provided for Trump in case of a missile attack, as well as a C-17 or C-40.
The requests came following two failed assassination attempts on Trump within weeks of each other.
IRAN’S LEADER TO ADDRESS UN AMID THREATS OF ASSASSINATIONS AGAINST US POLITICIANS, ELECTION INTERFERENCE
Last month, Trump talked of a potential Iranian assassination threat against him.
Tehran’s potential assassination plot was detailed in FBI documents that Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, showing other potential targets included Biden and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley, along with other “politicians, military people or bureaucrats.”
At one point, Trump was briefed about “real and specific threats” from Iran to assassinate him, the campaign said last month.
Iran’s aim to assassinate Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, is part of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to “destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a press release at the time.
Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
Politics
Why Nevada Latinos Are Losing Faith in Government
Las Vegas is best known for its glittering casinos along the Strip, but it is also a perennial political battleground. That is partly because it is a transient region inside a transient state — a place where people move in and out with rapid speed, adding a new crop of voters with every election cycle.
Adding to that volatility is the fact that the state’s demographics skew young, and that the number of new voter registrations keep growing. Much of that growth comes from Hispanic voters, who make up more than 20 percent of the Nevada electorate.
For nearly two decades, Nevada Democrats have eked out wins in the state, making it an essential part of the path to win the White House. But Democrats’ popularity here has slipped recently. Latino voters frequently cite the economy and housing as their top concerns, and many say they are deeply frustrated with the party they once supported.
A Struggling Economy
No other issue is as important in Las Vegas as the economy: Spend a few minutes with any voter and they will tell you about the price of groceries or gas or rent or electricity — or all of the above.
Working-class voters are especially concerned about the cost of housing, with renters struggling to keep up with their monthly payments and increasingly seeing homeownership as out of reach.
Livier Maxwell, a 41-year-old stay-at-home mother, moved from San Diego to Las Vegas more than a decade ago largely because she believed that the economic opportunities would be better. Here, her family can comfortably live on her husband’s salary alone.
Ms. Maxwell says she plans to enthusiastically vote for former President Donald J. Trump this year, because she believes he will help improve the economy.
“Things were better for me when he was in office, I had more money in the bank,” she said.
The pandemic particularly ravaged Las Vegas, as casinos on the Strip shut down for months in 2020 and brought the economy, dependent on tourism, to a standstill. Though the situation has dramatically improved from four years ago, when roughly 90 percent of the members of the powerful Culinary Workers Union were out of work, many workers say they haven’t recovered.
Suldenil Alvarez-Loriga, 45, emigrated from Cuba nearly a decade ago, coming to Las Vegas because she had seen the glittering Strip in TV shows. But in recent years, Ms. Alvarez-Loriga has been shocked to see she needs to hold down two or three jobs just to pay her bills.
“I have to work all the time, with no time to see my family,” she said. “But what other choice do I have?”
For weeks now, Ms. Alvarez-Loriga has joined other members of the Culinary Workers Union, including Joleen Reyes, who works at the Cosmopolitan hotel, knocking on doors to drum up support for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.
“I think she understands what we are going through, and will make it better for people like us,” Ms. Reyes said.
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