Trump administration's cuts to 2 Utah national monuments, explained

Claim:

In July 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an order to cut 3 million acres of land from two national monuments in Utah.

Rating:

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In July 2026, social media users claimed U.S. President Donald Trump was cutting 3 million acres of national monuments in Utah. National monuments are significant lands or waters set aside for permanent protection.

For example, one X post (archived) said Trump announced "that he is terminating 3 million acres of national monuments, opening them up to drilling, mining, and industrial development."

The claim also spread on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived), where users noted the national monuments affected are located in Utah, while numerous readers searched our site for more information and emailed us asking if the claim is true.

On July 13, 2026, Trump did issue a pair of proclamations that would reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah — Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — by a total of roughly 2.9 million acres between them. Therefore, we've rated this claim true.

Trump administration's 2026 cuts

Between a fact sheet Trump's White House released and the two proclamations that accompanied it, the Trump administration described how much land is being removed from each monument. Bears Ears is set to be cut from 1.36 million acres to approximately 121,100 acres, while Grand Staircase-Escalante would reduce from 1.87 million acres to approximately 181,500 acres.

Bears Ears National Monument is named after a pair of buttes in southeastern Utah that look like a pair of bear ears peeking above the horizon form a distance, according to Colorado State University. The area is considered sacred to native tribes in the region, who lobbied for the area's protection.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is largely known for its rugged landscape featuring colorful cliffsides, and it's scientific value for geologists, paleontologists and other researchers. It lies in southern Utah, west of Bears Ears.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance made maps showing the cuts to both national monuments, which greatly reduce their sizes and split each into multiple, disconnected sections.

Previous cuts and restorations

This is not the first time Trump has tried to reduce the size of these national monuments, although it is the most significant cut he has attempted to make. In December 2017, his administration reduced Grand Staircase to about 840,000 acres and Bears Ears to roughly 200,000 acres.

In October 2021, former President Joe Biden restored both monuments to their original sizes, plus an additional 11,200 acres that Trump first added to Bears Ears in his first administration.

Even so, legal challenges to Trump's original cuts continued. In November 2024, a judge declined to dismiss lawsuits attempting to stop the cuts to the national monuments. The Center for Biological Diversity says those lawsuits are still pending, as of this writing.

Conservation groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance are also challenging the Trump administration's 2026 cuts in the courts, making the permanency of the potential reductions unknown at the time of publication.

In Trump's July 2026 proclamations, it is noted that Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante both contain valuable mineral resources within their borders. Due to their national monument status, those areas are protected from things like mining. Therefore, reducing their sizes would allow the previously protected landscapes to to be mined. 

This is not the first time we've fact-checked claims about the Trump administration's attempts to restrict or reduce protections on federal lands that would steer the focus of those areas from conservation to resource production. In May 2026, the administration finalized a rule to revoke grazing permits from a herd of bison so cattle ranchers could instead use the land. In June, social media users condemned proposed Trump administration changes that would revoke protections from habitat that is critical to the rare, endangered whooping crane so those lands could be used for other purposes.

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