John Oliver is selling stickers to block Trump’s face on national park passes
John Oliver announced on the most recent episode of “Last Week Tonight” that he has done just that launched a new website where people can print stickers to put over Donald Trump’s face and prevent him from appearing on national parks’ America the Beautiful passes (via SF port). Trump has changed the design of the passes so that he can be seen next to George Washington. Oliver noted that 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 DC.
“I understand what they’re going for by spotlighting America’s first and last president 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 has made major cuts to the Park Service, which has now lost 24% of its permanent employees.”
Oliver noted that the passes used to feature beautiful depictions of landscapes and animals found in America’s national parks. He even brought up a recent lawsuit arguing that Trump shouldn’t put his face on the passes because “federal law requires that the main America the Beautiful Pass include the winning photo from the National Parks Foundation’s annual public photo contest.”
Trump’s takeover of the passes already inspired visitors to put stickers on Trump’s face, which the U.S. Department of the Interior opposed, saying stickers and other coverings could count as modifications to the passes and render them unusable under “Void if Altered” rules. However, that hasn’t stopped Oliver from joining the protest and offering visitors a new set of stickers to block out Trump’s face.
Oliver’s website, which features a banner with a fake National Park Service badge reading “Last Week Tonight: Department of F-king Around,” offers a handful of sticker optionsfrom 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 experiences in national parks without having to look at the man who is actively trying to ruin them,” Oliver said of the movement he is joining to get rid of Trump’s face on the passes.
Trump’s cuts to national parks have sparked 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 berate Trump for cutting $267 million in funding. Offerman also called on the president to increase access to the parks to bring in $90 million in the Department of the Interior budget.
“Let me get this straight, Mr. President,” Offerman said. “You cut $267 million to get back $90 million. I’m no mathematician, but I guess that’s called shitting the bed. Then again, I didn’t go to Wharton Business College.”
Offerman then quoted a news report that explained how national parks would bring in $55 billion to the U.S. economy by 2023, plus employ 415,000 people, and explained how national parks are an easy vacation for families.
“That’s the true wonder of our national parks,” Offerman said. “It’s an affordable vacation that anyone can take within 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 burgers. You can still go there, I guess, but at that point it’s really just a bathroom.”
