President Donald Trump signed an executive order drastically shrinking the size of two national monument areas in Utah on Monday.The order applies to the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, shrinking their total coverage by roughly 90% from 3 million acres to 300,000.The areas were established as federal monuments by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2016 respectively."They took the land from the people quite honestly," Trump said during the Monday signing ceremony.
"We’re giving it back."Utah Gov.Spencer Cox also attended the signing and praised the move, saying the original size of the monuments was far too expansive.DOUG BURGUM SAYS VANDALISM OF REFLECTING POOL STARTED AS EARLY AS JUNE 9 AFTER TRUMP ANNOUNCED RENEWALUS President Donald Trump looks on after signing an executive order to drastically shrink two national monuments in Utah, paving the way for fossil fuel extraction and mining.
(SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)"We believe that under the Antiquities Act, it’s very clear that these monument designations are supposed to be the smallest area possible to protect the antiquities, and these multimillion-acre monuments that are bigger than the state of Delaware certainly do not fit that designation," he said.Local Native American groups have criticized the move, however, as both monument areas contain parts of their history, including cliffside villages and petroglyphs.NEWSOM-BACKED COMMISSION TRANSFERS POPULAR COASTLINE TO INDIGENOUS TRIBESRed rock formations in the "Valley of the Gods" on April 22, 2026 in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah.Bears Ears has been a controversial Monument since it's creation in December of 2016.
(Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)"From a Navajo perspective, Bears Ears is not simply a piece of federal public land," said Davina Smith-Idjesa, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition."This is a living cultural site that holds our histories...