National Park Service gets small pat on the butt from Trump

PUBLIC LANDS — What might seem like a grand gesture from President Donald Trump today is actually a humiliating moment for the National Park Service.

Trump is donating the first three months of his salary to the underfunded agency, White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced.

In doing so before cameras at a press briefing, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke handed an oversized check for $78,333 to NPS representatives.  That’s pocket change for the president and a pittance toward the agency’s needs.

Trump’s has proposed cutting 12 percent from the Interior Department’s budget.

The billionaire businessman turned president had promised to forgo his presidential salary, the Associated Press reminds us. “By law he must be paid, so he is donating the money.”

Zinke said he will use the money to help on long-deferred maintenance projects on the nation’s 25 battlefields. Outstanding maintenance projects on those sites amount to about $229 million, Zinke said.