Melania Trump Hails Park Service Birthday. Guess How Well That Went Over.
Melania Trump celebrated the 102nd birthday of the National Park Service at the White House Saturday with representatives of America’s spectacular public lands, and marked the event on Twitter.
Once again, similar to her appearance at a conference against cyberbullying, the first lady highlighted an issue on which her husband has a less than stellar record.
Happy Birthday and thank you to the @NatlParkService for 102 years of commitment to this country! pic.twitter.com/Zy25uSXbq6
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) August 25, 2018
President Donald Trump clashed with the National Park Service right from his start in office over its photos of his inaugural crowd. Trump insisted the attendance was historically large, but even extra photographs he reportedly ordered the park service to provide failed to inflate the crowd to the president’s view of reality. When the NPS retweeted side-by-side photos of Trump and Barack Obama’s clearly much larger 2009 inaugural crowd, it was ordered to stop tweeting.
The episode spawned a series of “alt government” Twitter accounts.
On policy matters, the Trump administration has incurred the wrath of those opposing the diminishment of public lands. Last year, Trump gutted the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah to open up much of those public lands to private logging, drilling and mining operations.
Early this year almost every member the federally chartered National Park System Advisory Board quit because Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke refused to meet with them.
Twitter users felt compelled to remind Melania Trump of her husband’s history with public lands.
— Matt Dlouhy (@MattDlouhy) August 25, 2018
Are you talking about same Parks service that was punished for telling the truth about the inauguration crowd size?
— Ryan Graney (@RyanEGraney) August 25, 2018
Pssssst. Obama’s was bigger.https://t.co/adss4aliuQ
— Ryan Graney (@RyanEGraney) August 25, 2018
Your sentiment falls flat when you do everything to remove protections and funding FOR our national park services!
— 💙#BlueWavesAndSunnyInJax☀🌊🌴 (@SunnyInJax) August 25, 2018
Didn’t your husband @realDonaldTrump slash the National Parks & several monuments last year, so oil & mineral companies can make more money at the expense of nature & history? So happy 102 @NatlParkService , hope you survive to see 103, right?!?! #MAGAMa https://t.co/pVRXB7D19E
— Jamal M Edwards (@JamalMEdwards) August 25, 2018
Nearly all members of National Park Service advisory panel resign in frustration - The Washington Post https://t.co/X4KyxYySXT
— Forever Logical 🖖 (@ForeverLogical) August 25, 2018
Funny, but your husbands 2 monstrous and dopey Secretary picks for the EPA and the Interior, plus his “DE-REGULATION” addictions, make this tweet seem like this is from a parody account. #EnvironmentalFraud #ClimateDeniers
— AnuradhaSharmaMagee (@eastwest6566) August 25, 2018
You wish them Happy Birthday as, your husband dismantles the national park system with pollution deregulations, selling them for profit to rape natural resources, and punishing them for telling the truth about his less then stellar crowd size at his inauguration.
— Tim Allen (@TLA123) August 25, 2018
Ever been to a National Park?
— Spellbound (@RSoltis) August 25, 2018
SAVE THEM !!!!!! https://t.co/X4mZgeacg2
— Dan Wheatley (@DanWheatley4) August 25, 2018
Oooh or this gem from the National Parks Conservation Association!https://t.co/aRpSWEnppP
— Jamie Schler (@lifesafeast) August 25, 2018
Happy Birthday to the National Park Service. Although this administration has caused some reductions to your services, rest assured that everything will be restored upon the removal of this administration, including the return of property sold off or leased to commercial entities
— JAMjam (@cpmsjam) August 25, 2018
National Parks that your husband is trying to gut. Seizing part of the land that belongs to all of us.
— peaceprincess (@peaceprincess29) August 25, 2018
Now if you would see to it that our beautiful parks and natural monuments are preserved for future generations! Your husband doesn’t appear to value any of these things especially if there is a huge profit made from its destruction! Very sad!
— Deborah Ordway (@OrdwayDeborah) August 25, 2018
Wanna talk?
— Robert Mueller (@realrobertmuell) August 25, 2018
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.