National parks no longer free to enter on MLK Day, but they will be on Trump’s birthday

WASHINGTON – Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday marking the birth of the civil rights leader who was slain in 1968. But Americans who want to spend the day at one of the country’s 63 national parks will have to pay for the first time in 15 years.

The National Park Service has offered free entry on MLK Day since 2011, and did the same for Juneteenth since 2021, when a bipartisan vote of Congress recognized June 19 as a federal holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States in 1865. But late last year, the Interior Department announced a new set of free entry days, removing the two holidays celebrating Black history while adding President Donald Trump’s birthday, which coincides with Flag Day.

In a statement announcing the move on Nov. 25, the department said the changes “reflect President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to making national parks more accessible, more affordable and more efficient for the American people.”

In interviews at the Capitol last week, Northwest lawmakers expressed a mix of surprise, disappointment and anger at the move.

“Seriously?” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, when a reporter told him about the change. “I guess it never ends, does it? The Trump Kennedy Center, now this.”

After making a career of putting his name on many things, including skyscrapers and steaks, Trump has continued that practice in his second term as president. He installed himself as chairman of the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts soon after taking office, and in December that board voted to rename the public concert venue and cultural center, calling it the Trump Kennedy Center.

Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Tacoma, said the move to replace MLK Day and Juneteenth with a holiday the Interior Department’s announcement referred to as “Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday” is “further proof that this administration is deeply rooted in anti-Blackness,” she said, pointing to Trump’s firing of Gen. Charles Q. Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in February 2025.

Brown, an Air Force general whom Trump called “a Patriot and Great Leader” when the president nominated him in 2020 to serve as Air Force chief of staff, was removed from his position as the nation’s highest-ranking military officer after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that the accomplished combat pilot had attained the position because he is Black.

“I think what’s happening right now, which is really sad and disappointing, is that there are people who are Republicans who understand the legacy of Dr. King and why it’s important to honor him, but they are so afraid of this administration that they sit in silence,” Strickland said.

Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, noted that Trump’s birthday coincides with Flag Day, marking the adoption of the stars and stripes as the new country’s flag by the Second Continental Congress in 1777.

“I think Flag Day is a great day to celebrate,” Baumgartner said. “It would be my preference that all three of those days were free days, just to get people out to our national parks and use them.”

During his tenure in the state Senate, Baumgartner said, he skipped the legislative session on MLK Day – when the state Legislature still works – to walk in Spokane’s annual parade that celebrates the legacy of King and other civil rights activists. He noted that the day has particular resonance in Spokane, after an attempted bombing at the parade by a white supremacist in 2011.

Rep. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, agreed that the free-entry days are an important way to encourage Americans to get outdoors and appreciate the natural world. The Trump administration’s changes, she said, are part of a pattern of dismantling programs intended to make access to national parks more equitable.

“It sends the message that this is not as important to us, that this Black civil rights leader and the legacy that he continues to have is not as important to this administration,” Randall said.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, said treating Trump’s birthday as a holiday is evidence that “we have an egotistical, greedy, corrupt person in the White House.”

“He’s not doing what would benefit the American people, and this is the perfect example,” Jayapal said. “We’re encouraging people to not celebrate heroes like Martin Luther King. We’re encouraging people to not celebrate Emancipation Day, and instead to celebrate a dictator.”

Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican who represents Western Montana and served as interior secretary during Trump’s first term, declined to comment on the change to specific days. But Zinke said his experience overseeing the National Park Service – when he worked at entry kiosks and cleaned bathrooms – made him critical of free -entry days in general.

“I think we need to look at it, because those funds going in, 80% go directly to the park just to keep it running,” he said, adding that most cars that enter national parks like Glacier and North Cascades already qualify for free entry because at least one passenger is a senior, a veteran or otherwise qualifies for a waiver.

“Higher usage has more revenue going in, and it makes sense, because higher usage means more trash cans have to be collected, but the superintendent can move that money around without Washington, D.C.’s permission,” Zinke said.

Washington’s senators, both Democrats, agreed that the administration’s move is less about costs than it is about making a statement of values.

“Come on,” Sen. Patty Murray said, sighing deeply. “I mean, every single minute of every day, he’s thinking of things to irritate people. That is irritating and it’s wrong, and he often does that so we’re not looking at what else he’s doing over here. But that’s a real slap in the face to a lot of people.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell said the days a federal agency chooses to recognize are “not arbitrary, to honor the lives and the moments in history where we’ve made advancements as society.”

Under Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the National Park Service has made a series of other changes aimed at downplaying some of the darker moments in the nation’s history, including the mistreatment of Black and Native Americans. That followed Trump’s executive order last March directing the agency to remove depictions of U.S. history “that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”

As for what to do on the president’s birthday, Newhouse said, “It’ll be a regular day for me.”