The Department of the Interior has quietly reworked the National Park Service's 2026 fee-free calendar, removing Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth and adding President Donald J. Trump's birthday; a change critics say substitutes civic commemoration with partisan pageantry.
The announcement is part of a broader 'modernisation' of park access that also imposes steeper fees for non-U.S. residents and a redesigned, resident-focused pass system. Officials say the moves prioritise American taxpayers; opponents call them exclusionary and racially insensitive.
