Trump’s Secret Plot to Give Part of Yosemite Away Exposed

Evan Vucci / REUTERS The Trump administration has been secretly plotting to gift a portion of Yosemite National Park to a private developer, a new report claims.

The eyebrow-raising deal, which prior administrations rejected, would award a sliver of the iconic national park to a developer to pave a private road through the park that would likely spike the value of the developer’s nearby property, insiders tell NOTUS .

“Obviously this looks kind of unseemly, with the value of this property potentially exploding with the deal,” a person familiar with the situation tells NOTUS.

That source added, “It kind of smells, you know.

It’s not quite right.” The portion of Yosemite in question is near one of its most iconic sights, the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, which President Abraham Lincoln signed a grant to protect during the American Civil War.

That road would connect an 83-acre private property to an existing road within Yosemite, giving it easy access to Yosemite Valley.

Reaching the popular valley from the property, which NOTUS reports could be developed into a hotel, resort, or private residence, now requires a roughly 90-minute circuitous drive.

Cutting across National Park land, the property is just five miles from Mariposa Grove.

Real-estate developer and investment firm Kingsbarn Realty Capital owns the land.

NOTUS reports that its CEO, Jeff Pori, has public business ties to people in Trump’s orbit.

Kingsbarn’s proposal for a private road is fully backed by the Department of the Interior and its political leadership, four sources familiar with discussions tell NOTUS.

Those sources said Trump officials are pressuring the National Park Service to greenlight the deal—despite its rejection of similar proposals by the property’s previous owner during the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations.

NOTUS writes that “staff are required to send regular updates on their progress to political appointees inside [Interior Secretary Doug] Burgum’s office.” The outlet adds that NPS staff are occasionally “berated by political staff” for not moving fast enough.

“They want us to be responsive to the property owner and their lobbyists or people, and they want us to work with these folks,” an anonymous source told NOTUS.