Journalist Reveals Just How Much Money Has Been Diverted From National Parks For Trump's Vanity Projects—And People Are Livid

In a series of articles for MacFarlane News and MeidasTouch, videos, and an appearance on CNN, Chief Washington Correspondent for MeidasTouch Scott MacFarlane blew the whistle on MAGA Republican President Donald Trump’s raiding of National Park Service (NPS) funds. Aided by his Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Trump diverted NPS money to pay for all of his White House and Washington D.C. vanity projects.

Trump’s hand-selected, mostly unwanted and unnecessary White House grounds and National Mall projects—things like a botched reflecting pool resurfacing, golden decor, a helipad, a ballroom, gilded statues, and giant flagpoles—alone took $423 million from major national parks across the country.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility's Tim Whitehouse told MacFarlane:

"The National Park Service is being used as a piggy bank for Trump’s vanity projects. The National Parks Service and the Department of Interior are giving Trump all of the money that he wants."

"That’s costing the American people. That’s hurting the rest of our country."

The funding shifts have caused project delays, staff losses, and exacerbated existing maintenance backlogs, which include replacement roofs at Mission San Jose in Texas, structural stabilization at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in Colorado, "emergency repair" of a wastewater treatment facility at Death Valley National Park in California and Nevada, and landscaping and maintenance at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

According to records obtained from NPS by MacFarlane, the $423 million Trump took for his vanity projects totals more than the funding for these nine major parks:

• Golden Gate
• Grand Canyon
• Grand Teton
• Joshua Tree
• Mammoth Cave
• Statue of Liberty complex
• Yellowstone
• Yosemite
• Zion

Private donations, park use fees, and appropriated funds approved by Congress have all been looted by the Trump administration. In addition to maintaining and staffing parks for visitors, NPS also participates in wildfire prevention and conservation efforts.

An NPS employee told MacFarlane News:

"This is part of a pattern of the National Park Service being forced to prioritize Trump’s vanity projects over our own needs."

"These projects aren’t being delayed because of some bureaucratic apparatus. They’re being delayed because the Trump Administration forced out the people who make them happen."

In his appearance on CNN seen below, MacFarlane did the math.

People were appalled, but unsurprised by the Trump administration's hubris.

@lpeterp/Bluesky

@FPWellman/X

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The grift has been ongoing, but the scope and scale were previously unknown.

In June, The Atlantic reported more than $1 million of NPS earmarked funds paid for White House projects. Trump repaved a short pathway with "polished African granite carved in Italy" for $689,232 and spent $347,503 to "affix gold frames and plaques mocking his predecessors" along the West Wing Colonnade.

But some of Trump’s changes are getting pushback.

His beloved ballroom is being blocked by the courts.

Congress is also investigating where Trump’s project money is coming from and going.

In a press release from Colorado Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper, he along with 10 other senators "launched an inquiry into the Trump administration redirecting tens of millions of dollars from [at least $90 million in] fees paid to the National Park Services (NPS) to fund President Donald Trump’s vanity projects in Washington."

The senators wrote to Interior Secretary Burgum:

"The American people deserve transparency and a complete explanation of where their money is being directed."

"Rather than distribute these fee revenues back to our national parks and public lands, it appears that the Department of the Interior has redirected fee revenues to pay for President Trump’s vanity projects around Washington, D.C."

The inquiry focused on transparency issues regarding how contracts for these projects were awarded.