Wildlife group sues to remove Trump photo from 2026 national parks pass

An environmental conservation group filed a lawsuit to halt federal plans to decorate next year’s national parks pass with an image of President Donald Trump’s face, arguing that federal law requires the pass to feature the winner of an annual nature photography competition instead.

Ahead of the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, its national parks have emerged as a key battleground in the war over what version of American history is told. The Trump administration also recently announced it was cutting free admission to national parks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 19 for 2026) and Juneteenth (June 19) — the only two federal holidays honoring Black history.

Visitors will instead get in free on June 14, which is both Flag Day and President Donald Trump’s birthday.

The standard America the Beautiful pass for 2026 unveiled last month by the Interior Department, features side-by-side portraits of George Washington and Trump to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. The annual pass typically has shown a photo of wildlife or the natural landscape taken on public lands or waters.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a complaint Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming the pass would violate a 2004 federal law and cause “recurring aesthetic harm” to pass-holders.

“The national parks are not a personal branding opportunity. They’re the pride and joy of the American people,” Kierán Suckling, the center’s executive director, said in a statement. “America the Beautiful means wild rivers and majestic mountains, not a headshot of a bloated, fragile, attention-seeking ego. There’s nothing beautiful about that.”

The lawsuit cites the 2004 Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which requires the secretaries of the interior and agriculture to “jointly hold an annual competition” to select a winning image to appear on the pass. The National Park Foundation’s competition rules state that submitted photos must “capture a moment that has been experienced on America’s federal public lands and waters.”

The pass featuring Trump’s headshot was unveiled as part of a wider revamped offering last month, including plans starting Jan. 1 to charge foreign visitors $250 — $170 more than U.S. residents — for an annual pass with unlimited access to the federal recreation system. The Interior Department previously said the changes reflected Trump’s commitment to making U.S. parks more accessible and affordable to Americans.

The elimination of free admissions to the nation’s parks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday in 2021 in recognition of the end of slavery, follows administration efforts to de-emphasize Black history. The National Park Service has also removed signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple parks, ordered the reinstallation of a Confederate general’s statue toppled in 2020 during Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, and removed information from its website about Harriet Tubman before reversing itself following backlash.

In a statement, the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, said the new free-entry schedule was part of its “commitment to making national parks more accessible, more affordable and more efficient for the American people.”

There will be 10 “patriotic fee-free days” at national parks in 2026, up from six this year. The new list includes several days that are not federal holidays, such as the 110th birthday of the Park Service (Aug. 25), Constitution Day (Sept. 17) and Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27).

The changes will do little to address the real issues facing the national parks system, which cut its staff by about 25% since Trump took office, said Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit founded in 1919 to be a citizen’s watchdog for the National Park Service.

“This move is not going to make our national parks safer, more sustainable or more relevant,” Spear said. “But it is going to make some people believe that their national parks are no longer interested or open to being relevant and welcoming to them.”

Earlier this week, Democrats in Congress pushed back on the elimination of the two holidays during a Senate subcommittee hearing on national parks. After Trump leaves office, MLK Day and Juneteenth will not only be restored at the national parks, said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), “but they will occupy again incredible places of pride in our nation’s history.”

White House deputy spokeswoman Anna Kelly called the Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit to stop Trump from appearing on next year’s national parks pass “frivolous.” “This leftist group should be thanking President Trump for enhancing opportunities for Americans to enjoy our beautiful national parks,” she said in an e-mailed statement Thursday.

The most recent winner of the National Park Foundation’s contest is a photograph of Glacier National Park in Montana’s Rocky Mountains. The 2024 photo was slated to be featured on the main 2026 America the Beautiful Pass but will instead feature on the $250 pass for overseas visitors only.

The group’s lawsuit also challenges the creation of the more expensive pass for overseas visitors, arguing that it was not one of the seven versions of the pass set out in the 2004 law.

The Trump administration, the group says, violated the law “by refusing to use the contest-winning Glacier National Park photo on the main America the Beautiful Annual Pass, by substituting a photo of Trump that was not taken on federal land and was not entered in the public contest, and by creating new Resident and Nonresident passes expressly prohibited by the law.”

The lawsuit claims that the use of Trump’s face on the 2026 resident pass harms those who compete in the annual photography contest and everyday park visitors, who it said are “being subjected to a recurring aesthetic harm from buying and using an Annual Pass adorned with Trump’s visage rather than Glacial National Park.”

A spokesperson for the Agriculture Department declined Thursday to comment on pending litigation, and the Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment.