To the editor: “The Trump administration is contemplating buying and selling a parcel of Yosemite Nationwide Park to a personal industrial developer.”
Let me confess my bias. Simply seeing the identify Trump in that first sentence of the article, I instantly shaped a adverse opinion (“Trump administration considering trading Yosemite land to private developer,” Aug. 28). However in the event you changed the identify Trump with the identify Obama each time it appeared within the article, I’d haven’t been as nervous (certainly, the Obama administration denied the proposal, because the George W. Bush administration had carried out beforehand).
There’s a foundation for my bias. Barack Obama visited a number of nationwide parks together with his household when he was president, together with Yosemite. To my data, President Trump has visited none. The denials saying this has nothing to do with politics or the Trump donor behind the industrial improvement proposal, and that it’s following all of the legal guidelines and guidelines, do nothing to earn my belief.
Only a week in the past, the article reviews, Trump mentioned, “My Administration is dedicated to defending each acre of our lands.” The Washington Post not too long ago reported that his administration has already reduce down dozens of timber in a beloved Washington, D.C., public golf course being renovated, earlier than official approval was given and courtroom hearings accomplished. After which there may be the recent bulldozing at Huge Bend Nationwide Park.
In 1956, President Eisenhower signed a regulation making “In God We Belief” the official motto to look on our cash and forex. In 2026, many people are saying, with loads of purpose and mountains of proof, “In Trump we do not belief.”
John Saville, Corona
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To the editor: The land comprising Yosemite shouldn’t be traded away underneath any circumstances. Whether it is vital to take action, it needs to be auctioned to the very best bidder, not traded away to a improvement firm run by a Trump supporter who proposes to make use of it as a shortcut for its rich residents to entry the park.
This deal appears much more smarmy after we discover that Trump Cupboard member Howard Lutnick has had close business ties to the developer, Kingsbarn Realty Capital. This deal reeks of grift.
Dan O’Connell, Santa Clarita
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To the editor: How dare naysayers recommend even a whiff of corruption in Trump doubtlessly promoting a slice of Yosemite to a personal developer! Do they really suppose that of a president who posts on a social media platform that he himself owns and sells early entry to these posts to Wall Road merchants? Do they suppose a president who mints a fortune in crypto whereas in workplace, accepts a jumbo jet from a international authorities, appears the opposite approach as his sons take stakes in drone manufacturers with enormous authorities contracts, and hawks tacky swag in his personal identify would besmirch a nationwide treasure that was established as protected in perpetuity 162 years in the past? (Simply neglect the no-bid contract given to a pal to restore the Reflecting Pool on the Nationwide Mall.)
Subsequent factor , they’ll level out the irony within the identify of the event firm: Kingsbarn.
Jordan Sollitto, San Marino
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To the editor: It’s laughable that the legal professional for the developer states that constructing a personal highway to hook up with an entry highway inside Yosemite is an “environmentally pleasant” answer as a result of it will considerably cut back the quantity of driving the event’s residents must do to entry the park.
Constructing a highway by way of largely roadless forestland is a horrible thought and all to comfort a rich few for a possible improvement that doesn’t but exist (and hopefully by no means will). One errant spark from earth-moving and different gear could cause a conflagration, plus doubtlessly threat destroying one of many sequoia groves situated inside Yosemite close to the western entrance. Given how excessive the chance of wildfire in that space is, the truth that the developer has both not considered such a situation or doesn’t care is astonishing.
Amy Wolfberg, Los Angeles
