John Oliver announced on the most recent episode of “Last Week Tonight” that he has launched a new website where people can print out stickers to put over Donald Trump’s face and block him from appearing on the national parks’ America the Beautiful passes (via SF Gate). Trump has changed the designs of the passes to feature himself alongside George Washington. Oliver noted it follows a worrying trend of Trump “slapping his name and face on things,” such as Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
“I get what they’re going for by showcasing America’s first and final presidents together, but Trump making himself and George Washington the faces of our national parks is weird for a number of reasons,” Oliver noted. “First, Trump seems to hate them. He’s made steep cuts to the park service, which has now lost 24% of its permanent employees.”Oliver noted the passes used to feature beautiful imagery of landscapes and animals that one could find in America’s national parks. He even brought up a recent lawsuit arguing Trump cannot put his face on the passes because “federal law requires the main America the Beautiful Pass to feature the winning photo of the National Parks Foundation’s annual public photo contest.”
Trump’s takeover of the passes already inspired visitors to start placing stickers over Trump’s face, which the U.S. Department of the Interior opposed since stickers and other coverings could count as alterations to the passes and make them unusable under the “Void if Altered” rules. However, that’s not stopping Oliver from getting in on the protest and offering visitors a new set of stickers to block Trump’s face.
Oliver’s website, which includes a banner with a fake National Park Service badge that reads “Last Week Tonight: Department of F—king Around,” offers a handful of sticker options, from cute animals to the faces of previous presidents such as Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.
“There is something inspiring about seeing people find a way to enjoy their experience at national parks without having to look at the guy who’s actively trying to ruin them,” Oliver said about the movement he’s joining to get rid of Trump’s face on the passes.
Trump’s funding cuts to the national parks have earned widespread backlash. In a viral appearance on “The Daily Show” last summer, Nick Offerman channeled the spirit of his “Parks and Recreation” character Ron Swanson to scold Trump for cutting $267 million in funding. Offerman also called out the president for increasing admission to the parks in order to bring in $90 million to the Department of Interior’s budget.
“Let me get this straight, Mr. President,” Offerman said. “You cut $267 million to get back $90 million. Now, I’m no mathematician, but I believe that’s called shitting the bed. But then again, I didn’t go to Wharton Business College.”
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Offerman then cited a news report which explained how national parks brought in $55 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023, plus employed 415,000 people and explained how national parks are an easy vacation for families.
“That is the true miracle of our national parks,” Offerman said. “It is an affordable vacation that everyone can take inside our own borders, whether you’re traveling with your family or abandoning your constituents during a crisis. Because let’s face it, America without its national parks is like McDonald’s without the hamburgers. You can still go there, I guess, but at that point it’s kind of just a bathroom.”
From Variety US