Mike Lee is Very Close To Selling Your National Parks
The coward of the Senate is back again trying to allow the sale of your parks in a must-pass bill. Act now to stop him.
There are many kinds of villains in politics. The loud ones. The shameless ones. The true believers who burn everything down in public.
Mike Lee is perhaps worse than all of them. Because Mike Lee is a coward.
Not the dramatic kind. Not the courageous-in-his-own-twisted-way kind. But the most contemptible kind of coward, the man who knows his ideas are hated, who knows the public would reject them instantly if they were debated honestly — and so he hides.
He behaves like a rat in the walls of Congress, gnawing quietly at structural supports, hoping the collapse comes later, when no one remembers who weakened the beams.
This week, he’s at it again.
What He’s Doing Right Now
Behind closed doors, Mike Lee introduced Amendment #3972 to the Interior–Environment appropriations bill this week — part of a massive FY2026 minibus that funds core functions of the federal government.
The amendment does one deceptively simple thing:
It strikes Section 130 of the bill, language that explicitly requires the Department of the Interior to maintain all existing national park units, trails, and wild & scenic rivers as federal land, operated by the National Park Service.
Like a true coward he’s hiding his poison inside a must-pass bill, relying on exhaustion and misplaced trust to get Senators to advance it. If it passes he’ll slither off and pretend nothing happened until the Trump administration exploits its newfound abilities to sell NPS units. And who do you think will be on the phone with them telling them which parks in Utah to sell?
This Would Result in the Sale of NPS Units
I want to be clear. If this poison pill is included in this must-pass bill and signed into law it will result in the unthinkable: National Parks being sold. Transferred out of federal control. Not maybe, it would happen.
The Trump administration has already made its intentions clear:
A proposed $1.2 billion cut to the National Park Service that would effectively defund or close hundreds of park units
A leaked DOI strategic plan proposing the closure, transfer, or disposal of federal sites
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum openly deriding many park units as “cost centers” unworthy of protection unless they generate revenue.
A Snake Is Too Noble a Comparison
A snake at least confronts you when it strikes.
Mike Lee is more like mold in the walls — destructive, parasitic, and thriving only in darkness. He survives by going unseen. By working behind the drywall of democracy, spreading quietly, and scavenging legitimacy while hollowing out institutions he claims to revere.
He’s mildew on the Constitution. A tick buried in the fur of democracy. A scavenger who waits for moments of chaos and fatigue to feed. And like all parasites, he relies on one thing above all else: remaining unseen.
As a matter of course he refuses all interviews from any publications that might possibly ask him a question he doesn’t want to answer, he never debates his “ideas” publicly, and shuns town halls where the public might be able to hold him to account.
And when he’s caught trying to dismantle your public lands? He performs the same grotesque little ritual every time:
“I listened to the public.”
“I heard the concerns.”
“I withdrew it voluntarily.”
A disgusting lie delivered by a coward who’s moral compass was pawned off long ago for influence over the people he despises.
Then he slithers off to try again.
The Contrast
While Lee is busy stripping protections from parks in secret, other senators are putting their names on real ideas in the very same bill:
Amendments to block offshore drilling along the Pacific coast
Proposals to stop expanded drilling across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf
Reauthorization of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative — one of the most successful conservation programs in the country
Protections for the Land & Water Conservation Fund
They stand behind their amendments. They speak to the press. They face scrutiny.
Mike Lee can’t do any of that because he’s afraid. Because he knows his agenda would never survive daylight.
A Traitor to American Ideals
America is built on a simple, radical idea: that some things belong to all of us.
That not everything exists to be sold. That future generations matter.
Mike Lee rejects that idea entirely.
To him, public land is an insult. A reminder that there are limits to what money and power can buy. A rebuke to the belief that the strongest should simply take what they want.
So he works tirelessly, and quietly, to erase it.
Expose Lee and He Flees the Scene
Lee is a sniveling coward who knows his agenda would collapse in the light of day and so spends his career crawling through the shadows, looking for another chance to do harm before anyone notices.
A man like that doesn’t deserve polite disagreement. He deserves exposure.
Because the only thing worse than a bad idea is a man too afraid to defend it — but happy to force it on the country anyway.
And Mike Lee has made that his entire career.
He doesn’t fear losing a debate. He fears having one. He fears being forced to explain, on the record, why America’s parks should be stripped of protection. He fears being asked why he keeps trying to do this quietly.
That’s why he avoids the press. That’s why he hides in process. That’s why he crawls into must-pass bills like a parasite into a wound.
And that’s why shining a light on this, loudly, relentlessly, publicly, is the one thing he can’t survive.
What You Can Do Right Now
This amendment can and must be defeated.
Below is a list of key Republican Senators with emails linked where you can contact them and tell them to stop this. They need to know this is a bridge too far.
(These are staff emails, many Senators don’t give out contact emails despite serving the American public)
Sample Email
Please Vote NO on Lee Amendment #3972
Senator [Last Name],
I’m writing about Senator Mike Lee’s Amendment #3972, and I want to be clear: this should not be entertained for even a second.
Our national parks are off limits. Full stop.
These are places Americans take their families. Places we grow up with. Places that belong to everyone and have always been protected as part of the National Park Service. They’re as American as the flag, and they’re not bargaining chips in a funding bill.
Stripping language that keeps these lands in the National Park Service is unacceptable, period. It doesn’t matter how it’s framed or buried. This is not something Congress should be debating, experimenting with, or testing. The answer should be an immediate no.
Please vote NO on Lee Amendment #3972 and make sure our national parks stay exactly where they belong — protected, intact, and under the National Park Service that Americans love.
This is a hard line, and Congress needs to treat it that way.
[Your Name]
Thanks for reading. Until next time,
Jim
*This essay reflects the author’s views and opinions, based on publicly reported actions and statements. It is intended as political commentary and criticism.
This is a brutal and necessary piece. You do not just name the harm, you show the method. The quiet sabotage. The procedural cowardice. The way power hides inside process and counts on fatigue to do its work. The metaphors are earned, not ornamental, and the argument is tight. You make clear that this is not about ideology but about evasion and bad faith. About someone who knows his agenda cannot survive daylight and therefore chooses rot over debate. This reads like a warning flare. It should be read that way.
All emails sent. Thank you for all the information and support to make it easier to do.