An environmental conservation group filed a lawsuit to halt federal plans to decorate next year’s national parks pass with an image of President Donald Trump’s face, arguing that federal law requires the pass to feature the winner of an annual nature photography competition instead.
The standard America the Beautiful pass for 2026 was unveiled last month by the Department of the Interior, featuring side-by-side portraits of George Washington and Trump to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. The annual pass typically has shown a photo of wildlife or the natural landscape taken on public lands or waters.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a complaint Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming the pass would violate a 2004 federal law and cause “recurring aesthetic harm” to passholders.
“The national parks are not a personal branding opportunity. They’re the pride and joy of the American people,” Kierán Suckling, the center’s executive director, said in a statement. “America the Beautiful means wild rivers and majestic mountains, not a headshot of a bloated, fragile, attention-seeking ego. There’s nothing beautiful about that.”
The lawsuit cites the 2004 Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which requires the secretaries of the interior and agriculture to “jointly hold an annual competition” to select a winning image to appear on the pass. The National Park Foundation’s competition rules state that submitted photos must “capture a moment that has been experienced on America’s federal public lands and waters.”
The pass featuring Trump’s headshot was unveiled as part of a wider revamped offering last month, including plans starting Jan. 1 to charge foreign visitors $250 — $170 more than U.S. residents — for an annual pass with unlimited access to the federal recreation system. The Interior Department previously said the changes reflected Trump’s commitment to making U.S. parks more accessible and affordable to Americans.
White House deputy spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in an emailed statement Thursday: “Instead of filing frivolous lawsuits, this leftist group should be thanking President Trump for enhancing opportunities for Americans to enjoy our beautiful national parks.”
The most recent winner of the National Park Foundation’s contest is a photograph of Glacier National Park in Montana’s Rocky Mountains. The 2024 photo was slated to be featured on the main 2026 America the Beautiful Pass but will instead feature on the $250 pass for overseas visitors only.
The group’s lawsuit also challenges the creation of the more expensive pass for overseas visitors, arguing that it was not one of the seven versions of the pass set out in the 2004 law.
The Trump administration, the group says, violated the law “by refusing to use the contest-winning Glacier National Park photo on the main America the Beautiful Annual Pass, by substituting a photo of Trump that was not taken on federal land and was not entered in the public contest, and by creating new Resident and Nonresident passes expressly prohibited by the law.”
The lawsuit claims that the use of Trump’s face on the 2026 resident pass harms those who compete in the annual photography contest and everyday park visitors, who it said are “being subjected to a recurring aesthetic harm from buying and using an Annual Pass adorned with Trump’s visage rather than Glacial National Park.”
The Departments of the Interior and Agriculture did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
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