The Daily Fuckup

President Donald Trump on July 13, 2026, issued proclamations that cut the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. The White House said the move restores what it calls proper monument sizes under the Antiquities Act, but the change is expected to draw another round of litigation over whether a president can reduce a national monument after it has been established.

The Bears Ears proclamation reduces the monument to about 121,096 acres, down from the roughly 1.36 million acres restored by President Joe Biden in 2021. The Grand Staircase-Escalante proclamation cuts that monument to about 181,541 acres from about 1.87 million acres. In both cases, the administration says the revised boundaries protect the specific objects the law is meant to cover while opening surrounding lands to ordinary multiple-use management.

Trump’s fact sheet says the smaller footprints will allow for what the administration describes as more practical land management outside the revised boundaries. The White House also argues that large sections of both monuments do not need monument-level protection and that other federal laws already cover many of the features in question.

The action reopens a fight that has already moved through several administrations and prior boundary changes. Bears Ears has been central to tribal history and sacred-site protections. Grand Staircase-Escalante is known for fossil beds, canyons, archaeological sites and other resources that have made it a target for competing claims over preservation, mining, grazing and energy use.

The immediate consequence is not just a new map, but a new legal and political test. Trump has now used the Antiquities Act to redraw the monuments again; opponents are likely to argue that the law does not give the president power to shrink them in the first place. Until the courts sort that out, the future of both Utah monuments will remain unsettled.