Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Trump admin pushing to trade Yosemite land to private developer

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Trump admin pushing to trade Yosemite land to private developer · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: We want every American child to have access to pristine
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  Speaker 1: outdoor spaces. When they gaze upon Yosemites towering sequoias, their
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  Speaker 1: love of country grows stronger, and they know that every
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  Speaker 1: American has truly a duty to preserve this wondrous inheritance.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what they're doing, and that's what we're doing.
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  Speaker 1: We're preserving an incredible inheritance. America's natural landscapes belong to
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  Speaker 1: the American people.
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  Speaker 2: Quote, America's natural landscapes belong to the American people. That
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  Speaker 2: was President Trump back in 2020 talking about the importance
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  Speaker 2: of preserving national parks for future generations. Now we're learning
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  Speaker 2: that his administration has been quietly working to sell a
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  Speaker 2: slice of Yosemite National Park to a private developer.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, you heard that right. The plan, which was first
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  Speaker 3: reported by.
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  Speaker 2: Notice, includes a land exchange between a Nevada-based company and
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  Speaker 2: the National Park Service. The agency would give up a
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  Speaker 2: quarter-mile strip of Yosemite or an interest in that land
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  Speaker 2: in the form of an easement in exchange for land
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  Speaker 2: of equal value somewhere in California. Joining us now is
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  Speaker 2: Notice reporter Anna Kramer. She broke the story this morning. So, Anna,
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  Speaker 2: why are they doing this? What is the justification?
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  Speaker 4: So there's a private developer, Las Vegas-based, that owns a
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  Speaker 4: plot of land just outside of the boundaries of Yosemite
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  Speaker 4: National Park that currently doesn't have easy access to the
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  Speaker 4: park itself. Getting there and getting to the main attractions
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  Speaker 4: in the park from that plot of land is extraordinarily difficult,
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  Speaker 4: has long, winding roads. That private developer wants to build
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  Speaker 4: a short road that would connect his property to the
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  Speaker 4: main road in this western part of Yosemite National Park.
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  Speaker 4: And if he could build that road, there would be
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  Speaker 4: sort of extraordinary private access to whoever is on that
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  Speaker 4: piece of land to the park, because there are very
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  Speaker 4: few places surrounding Yosemite National Park that have that kind
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  Speaker 4: of immediate direct access. So that a quarter-mile strip of
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  Speaker 4: land that we're talking about would be used to build
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  Speaker 4: a road to facilitate the access that currently doesn't exist
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  Speaker 4: for this private developer.
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  Speaker 2: Do you know more about what or who is on
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  Speaker 2: this piece of land that then wants to access the
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  Speaker 2: park in this short way?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 4: So the piece of land was purchased in 2024 by
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  Speaker 4: a Las Vegas-based real estate development firm called Kings Barn
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  Speaker 4: Realty Capital. And Kings Barn purchased it from a developer
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  Speaker 4: before who owned it for nearly 20 years, who also
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  Speaker 4: tried to build this private road that would connect the
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  Speaker 4: piece of land. to Yosemite and never succeeded because the
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  Speaker 4: National Park Service never agreed to do it. But that
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  Speaker 4: piece of land is currently undeveloped, but it could be
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  Speaker 4: developed into all sorts of things that, you know, you
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  Speaker 4: could imagine you might want on the boundaries of the park.
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  Speaker 4: It could be a hotel, a resort, a private residence.
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  Speaker 4: You could make it into anything you'd like. But ideally
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  Speaker 4: for that, whatever's built there to have, you know, value,
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  Speaker 4: the value would come if you got that really immediate
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  Speaker 4: access with the road that doesn't currently exist.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: So essentially agreeing to do this deal would likely significantly
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  Speaker 2: enrich this developer and allow whoever was then able to
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  Speaker 2: access this land to have relatively special privileges to access
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  Speaker 2: this national park.
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  Speaker 3: That's how my sources described it, yes. Okay. So, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: Matt Whitlock, you've worked out West.
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  Speaker 2: You understand what the drama of these landscapes, the way
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  Speaker 2: these parks draw Americans to them.
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  Speaker 3: The way the public nature of it.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, there's so much publicly owned land out in
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  Speaker 2: the American West and relatively little of it is accessible
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  Speaker 2: for people to access, to hike through, to be able
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  Speaker 2: to enjoy.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think the Trump administration, what are they doing?
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  Speaker 5: I think that what they will do going forward is
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  Speaker 5: explain the purpose of this. Having grown up in California,
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  Speaker 5: went on field trips to Yosemite, it's beautiful, but it
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  Speaker 5: is hard to access. There's not a lot of places
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  Speaker 5: to stay around it, and the park is hurting financially.
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  Speaker 5: So the goal of this is to make it easier
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  Speaker 5: for people to access, have more people come into the park.
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  Speaker 5: This is a quarter of a mile easement, or three
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  Speaker 5: quarters of a mile easement, as you said, intended to
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  Speaker 5: help it get more people into the park. It's a
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  Speaker 5: land swap It's not a sale. It's not a giveaway
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  Speaker 5: to help a wealthy friend. This is to help more
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  Speaker 5: people get in and enjoy Yosemite. So I think there's
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  Speaker 5: been a lot of coverage that's sort of much ado
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  Speaker 5: about nothing when you understand how this actually works.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I guess the challenge would be if this land
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  Speaker 2: is still undeveloped, who exactly does get to benefit from it?
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  Speaker 3: Because if it's a billionaire... with a private compound.
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  Speaker 2: Then you're not actually giving access to the public. You're
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  Speaker 2: giving access to one person.
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  Speaker 5: Well, I think the goal will be to create a
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  Speaker 5: resort or a facility that people can stay in.
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  Speaker 3: Do we know that?
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  Speaker 5: I don't know that we know that yet, but I also.
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  Speaker 3: Know that because... Hold on one second. Anna, do we
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  Speaker 3: know that? We don't know that they've said one way
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  Speaker 3: or the other what they're going to do with it, right? No, no, no.
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  Speaker 4: Nobody has commented publicly or said to me what they
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  Speaker 4: imagine will be built there. The previous owner did want
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  Speaker 4: to build a resort, but we have no idea what
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  Speaker 4: the current owner wants to build there.
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  Speaker 5: But I believe the current owner has done a lot
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  Speaker 5: of developing in other places similar to this. So that's
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  Speaker 5: a fair guess to make. But the other part of
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  Speaker 5: this is with the swap, they'll get other land to
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  Speaker 5: expand the parks. It's not like you're losing land in Yosemite.
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  Speaker 5: And to your first point, So much of the West
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  Speaker 5: is locked up in federal land rules that make it
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  Speaker 5: hard to grant access to more people. So this is
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  Speaker 5: kind of an attempt to compromise so that more people
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  Speaker 5: can enjoy America's wonders, like Half Dome. Hiking Half Dome
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  Speaker 5: is something everyone should experience in their life.
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  Speaker 3: I've always wanted to do that. It's spectacular. Adrienne Elrod,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, how would you look at this?
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  Speaker 6: Well, I look at it, again, as a president who wants,
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  Speaker 6: we have the soundbite there, he wants to expand his
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  Speaker 6: access to land for children to be able to enjoy
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  Speaker 6: our national parks. And here he is, again, using the
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  Speaker 6: grift that his administration.
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  Speaker 3: Has used so effectively.
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  Speaker 6: Toward benefiting themselves financially, which is to try to do
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  Speaker 6: a land swap with a developer, which I think.
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  Speaker 5: Those people- Is there an indication that the president will
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  Speaker 5: benefit from this in any way?
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  Speaker 6: Well, I think that, but my point is this, perception-wise,
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  Speaker 6: I think that's- That's perception-wise.
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  Speaker 3: The average person would be thinking here, like, why are
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  Speaker 3: you trying to do this?
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  Speaker 6: And to Casey's point and to the reporter's point, he
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  Speaker 6: wrote this story on notice- We don't know what this
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  Speaker 6: land is going to be used for, but every assumption
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  Speaker 6: based on everything that Trump has done thus far would
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  Speaker 6: be that it's going to somehow benefit him financially or
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  Speaker 6: it's a favor to one of his donors. Again, it
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  Speaker 6: distracts from the fact that people are suffering economically. Prices
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  Speaker 6: remain high. And here's the president trying to enrich another wealthy.
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  Speaker 5: Can I add one point really quickly? There's a lot
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  Speaker 5: of people in the area that are excited about this
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  Speaker 5: because it might increase economic activity around the park that
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  Speaker 5: has struggled because the structure of it makes it hard
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  Speaker 5: to access and increase recreation around it.
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  Speaker 3: OK, fair enough.
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  Speaker 2: So we have Matt's offering a relatively local perspective. Chris,
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  Speaker 2: when you look at your polling there, there has been
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  Speaker 2: this sort of let-them-eat-cake element to the things that are
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  Speaker 2: breaking through with people who are struggling when they look
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  Speaker 2: at Trump, whether it's the ballroom or some of the
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  Speaker 2: other things he's putting.
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  Speaker 3: His name on.
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  Speaker 2: When you look at your numbers, does something like this,
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  Speaker 2: them taking a piece of the National Park and selling
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  Speaker 2: it to a developer.
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  Speaker 3: Play into that perception? And does that perception exist?
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  Speaker 7: So it does sound like this is a different circumstance than, say,
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  Speaker 7: the president's family making a great deal of money from
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  Speaker 7: a cryptocurrency venture or something like that.
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  Speaker 3: This feels... Very sort of different. Absolutely worth distinguishing.
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  Speaker 7: It is the case that in a lot of my data,
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  Speaker 7: I see voters feeling concerned about the issue of political corruption.
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  Speaker 7: But it's also important to note that when a voter
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  Speaker 7: tells me that they think political corruption is a big deal,
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  Speaker 7: lots of them think.
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  Speaker 3: Trump is corrupt, but they think everybody is corrupt. And
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  Speaker 3: so there's a lot of, ah, yes, look. The average
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  Speaker 3: guy is.
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  Speaker 7: Getting screwed by politicians in Washington making a decision on
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  Speaker 7: their behalf.
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  Speaker 3: It's not a dynamic that I think is helping Republicans now.
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  Speaker 7: But I think in this specific instance, the biggest challenge
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  Speaker 7: I can see on this within the Republican coalition is
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  Speaker 7: Republicans actually do have a lot of outdoorsmen in their coalition.
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  Speaker 7: Every piece of data I've seen shows that it is
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  Speaker 7: Republican voters who stand alongside independents and Democrats saying they
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  Speaker 7: believe we should protect public lands. So the public opinion
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  Speaker 7: on this is where I actually think Republicans don't deserve
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  Speaker 7: sort of the stereotype of being like, oh, let's all
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  Speaker 7: sell it to developers. And I think in this specific instance,
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  Speaker 7: if they can make the case like Matt has made
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  Speaker 7: that this is actually trying to expand access, That.
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  Speaker 3: Would be much more in line. I mean, it's the
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  Speaker 3: whole plot of the TV show Yellowstone. Yes. Right? Save
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  Speaker 3: the land. Protect it from developers. You're exactly right. It's
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  Speaker 3: all about how this is framed and told.
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  Speaker 6: I think maybe you should be the spokesperson.
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  Speaker 3: You did a very nice job. Why not?