The latest tempest in a teapot (a more apt metaphor than most, thanks to Yellowstone’s famous geysers) concerns the recent announcement of fee-free days at America’s national parks in 2026. 

Just like employers, retail stores, and any other business that operates on a calendar, the National Park Service announces its schedule for the following year in November or December, and the latest announcement has the left in an uproar of imagined offense and calculated fury.  As the press reports it, “Juneteenth and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday have been removed as free days, and Trump’s birthday has been added.” 

You can see why the perpetually upset would be triggered. 

The true story is a bit more detailed, infinitely more sensible, and not remotely racist, despite the left’s crocodile tears. 

First, let’s look at the free day list at America’s national parks for 2025: 

• January 20: Martin Luther King Jr Day  

• April 19: Start of National Park Week  

• June 19: Juneteenth 

• August 4: Great American Outdoors Day  

• September 27:  National Public Lands Day  

• November 11: Veterans’ Day 

Now, if you look at that list without any preconceived notions, what would you think was the determining factor for that particular selection? 

It can’t be support of America’s ethnic groups; two dates are selected in support of black Americans, but there’s no date at all for any other ethnic group.  No Columbus Day for the Italians, no St. Patrick’s Day for the Irish, no Casimir Pulaski Day for the Poles, no Mayflower Day for the WASPs.  So the idea of celebrating our diverse ethnic groups can’t explain those two dates’ inclusion. 

It can’t be tied to federal holidays; three of those named are federal holidays, but no other federal holidays are free days.  Why MLK Day, Juneteenth, and Veterans’ Day, but not Washington’s birthday, Independence Day, or Labor Day, after all?  They’re federal holidays, too.  What did the Biden-Harris administration have against these dates when it issued 2025’s free-day calendar last year? 

They supported Great American Outdoors Day and National Public Lands Day, which I suspect 99% of Americans have never even heard of.  Why would a day be chosen as a free day if nobody’s even heard of it? 

And then there’s April 19, the start of National Parks Week.  Well, if you want to celebrate National Parks Week, why not make the whole week free?  Why just one day? 

The problem is clear: There was no rhyme or reason — at all — to the free day calendar at our National Parks in the past. 

Now, when you think about the top 100 issues in Washington, D.C., this one doesn’t place on the list at all. Not even close.  But this Trump administration is applying common sense to every subject, and in this case, it could only conclude that the current free-day schedule made no sense whatsoever. 

So Trump’s people thought about what would make sense.  What unified approach would ground the list of free days in a sensible design, one that would be virtually unimpeachable? 

Here’s the list of National Park free days for 2026.  Let’s see if we can find a theme. 

• February 16: Washington’s Birthday 

• May 25: Memorial Day 

• June 14: Flag Day 

• July 3-5: Independence Day Weekend 

• August 25: 110th Birthday of the National Park Service 

• September 17: Constitution Day 

• October 27: Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday 

• November 11: Veterans’ Day 

Clearly, there’s some logical thought in place behind next year’s list.  The National Parks’ birthday and the birthday of the president who launched the concept of National Parks are included, and the rest of the holidays are all patriotic holidays — celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; the anniversary of the Constitution; the anniversary of the birth of our first president, George Washington; and the key days dedicated to all members of the armed forces who have won and kept our independence all these years, and to the flag under which they have fought. 

The left is delighting in claiming that June 14 was chosen because it’s President Trump’s birthday, but in a nation with over 300 million people and a year with only 365 days in it, every holiday is bound to be shared with a host of other holidays and birthdays as well.  (September 17 would have been my mother’s birthday, incidentally; I’m sensible enough to know it was chosen for Constitution Day, not as a compliment to my mom.)  The choice of Flag Day in this list, in context, makes perfect sense. 

No more priority given to one ethnic group over another, no more celebration of holidays nobody’s ever even heard of.  Now we have a logical, coherent theme of free days for 2026, the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence. 

Leftists will always find things to complain about.  They’ll probably assume that people will find it harder to celebrate, harder to save money, harder to enjoy the parks. 

Just wait until one of them remembers how to do math and realizes the free day list has been increased from six days this year to ten days next year.  They’ll still whine about something, but it will be fun watching them try to justify it. 

John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international transportation manager, trade compliance trainer, and speaker.  Read his book on the surprisingly numerous varieties of vote fraud (The Tales of Little Pavel), his political satires on the Biden-Harris years (Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes I, II, and III), and his 2024 collection of public policy essays, Current Events and the Issues of Our Age, all available in eBook or paperback, exclusively on Amazon.  

Image via Unsplash.