Most Utahns want to protect their national monuments. Trump had other plans.

President Trump last week signed executive orders drastically shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by roughly ninety percent each, despite polling that shows most Utah residents want to protect them. According to Grist, surveys from Utah State University found that sixty-one percent of Utahns either supported or strongly supported preserving Bears Ears, with only nineteen percent opposed. Similar majorities favor protecting Grand Staircase-Escalante. Yet Utah's Republican political leaders, who accompanied Trump at the signing, have long pushed for these reductions, citing the need to access critical minerals like copper, nickel, and uranium. The cuts reduced Bears Ears from one point three five million acres to about one hundred twenty-one thousand acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante from nearly one point nine million acres to over one hundred eighty-one thousand acres. Hundreds protested at the Governor's Mansion, highlighting the gap between public sentiment and their leaders' actions.

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