President Donald Trump left Washington D.C. for a trip to Utah on Monday, to announce his decision to shrink two massive national monuments in Utah.
“We’re going to be doing something that the state of Utah and others have wanted to be done for many, many years,” Trump said. “It will be one of the great, really, events in this country in a long time.”
President Barack Obama designed an unprecedented 1.35 million acres of land to serve as the Bears Ears National Monument right before he left office in 2016. President Bill Clinton designated 1.9 million acres in Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument.
The Washington Post cites leaked documents showing that Trump plans to shrink Obama’s monument by 85 percent and Clinton’s monument by nearly 50 percent.
Many Utah leaders are celebrating Trump’s decision, as it puts more land back under state control. Sen. Mike Lee and Sen. Orrin Hatch are traveling with the president for the announcement in Utah.
Trump told reporters that his announcement in the state would be “so important for states’ rights and so important for the people of Utah.”