Deep inside the 130-page 2026 budget proposal for the Department of the Interior that President Donald Trump published earlier this spring is a section titled “recreational fee program” — in it, the budget proposes a “surcharge for foreign visitors that is estimated to generate more than $90 million to keep national parks beautiful.”
While the proposal had previously largely gone unnoticed amid a wider plan to reduce the budget for the agency overseeing the country’s 63 national parks by over 30%, Trump’s latest executive order instructs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to put it into action by raising entrance and recreation pass fees for international tourists in the coming year.
Don’t miss the move: SIGN UP for TheStreet’s FREE Daily news
‘National parks will be about America first’: Trump
“To fund improvements and enhanced experiences across the park system, I’ve just signed an executive order to raise entrance fees for foreign tourists while keeping prices low for Americans,” Trump said at a July 3 rally in Iowa following the passing of his sweeping tax bill earlier that day. “The national parks will be about America first.”
Related: National Parks Service is asking workers to help them make layoffs
The executive order does not specify how or by how much the higher fees would increase. At the moment, approximately one third of all national parks and very few historical sites charge any entrance fees at all — $35 per private vehicle at parks like Acadia in Maine and Everglades in Florida — while the vast majority are free to enter.
The America The Beautiful annual pass, which covers fees for any park that charges them, currently has discount rates for U.S. citizens and permanent residents older than 62. There are also already existing passes that waive any fees for military members, U.S. citizens or permanent residents with disabilities, federal workers and U.S. fourth graders.
Image source: Shutterstock
Order targeting national park visitors framed as ‘putting Americans first’
The White House claims that, by raising prices for foreign visitors, it will be able to generate over $90 million that will go toward “keeping national parks beautiful” but does not clarify how that number was calculated or how much will be charged to individual visitors. The same proposal also wants to cut national park funding by $1.2 billion while the job cuts to the NPS that DOGE initiated earlier in the year have already created problems staffing the park entrances where any fees are charged and visitors’ status in the U.S. would presumably be checked.
The order also targets recreational pass fees that visitors pay for activities like camping and kayaking. It is being framed as “ensuring fairness” and “putting Americans first” and further says that U.S. visitors should be prioritized for any “recreational access rules, including permitting or lottery rules” (presumably, park activities that have limited availability or require advance bookings such as permits to raft through the Grand Canyon).
More on national parks:
- Now is the time to apply for permits for popular national park activity
- Multiple national parks warn of similar danger
- One of the biggest crimes committed in a national park is solved
“American citizens fund national parks and public lands with their tax dollars, yet they are currently charged the same rate as foreign visitors who do not pay taxes, meaning that American citizens pay more to see their own national treasures than foreign visitors do,” the order reads.
Related: Veteran fund manager issues dire S&P 500 warning for 2025
