Gone quiet · last update Sep 2, 2026 / Donald Trump
Trump's shrinking of two Utah national monuments
Overview · reviewed October 28, 2026
In July 2026 President Donald Trump signed executive orders shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, stripping safeguards from nearly 3 million acres that include sacred tribal sites and reviving a fight that has spanned three decades.[1][2]Trump had cut both monuments in his first term, and President Joe Biden restored their full protections in October 2021.[3] Tribal leaders, conservationists and the outdoor company Patagonia have challenged the new orders.[4][2]
Follow this story to see new developments when you return.
Trump had cut both monuments in his first term, and President Joe Biden restored their full protections in October 2021.[3] Tribal leaders, conservationists and the outdoor company Patagonia have challenged the new orders.[4][2]
Coverage over time
Share of tracked outlets · monthly average of weekly shares (UTC)
6%
Oct 20212023202420252026this month
LeftCenterRight
Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. Over more than two years each bar is a month: the average of that month's weekly shares, so the shape stays readable. The weekly table below keeps every week. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 3 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.
Weekly counts, outlets and reports (5 weeks with coverage)
Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)
Left
Center
Right
Of tracked
Share
Receipts
Aug 31, 2026
1
5
1
7 of 475
1%
Jul 13, 2026
13
30
12
55 of 559
10%
Jul 6, 2026
0
1
0
1 of 560
under 1%
Jun 9, 2025
5
6
3
14 of 199
7%
Oct 4, 2021
18
22
6
46 of 189
24%
Latest coverage
The newest reporting in this story's record.
Sep 2, 2026 · first reported · Headline from The Hill
In June 2025 a Justice Department legal opinion said Trump had broad authority to revoke monuments designated by past presidents.[5] The July orders reduced the size of both monuments,[1] drawing denunciations from tribal and congressional leaders in Colorado and conservationists across the West,[4] and in September Patagonia joined a lawsuit against the reductions.[2]
