Trump defends scaling back Utah monuments

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on President Donald Trump’s plan to scale back national monuments (all times local):

9:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump says his plan to scale back two national monuments in Utah is an important move for “state’s rights” as well as for the people of Utah.

Trump commented Monday as he left the White House for a trip to Salt Lake City, where he was outlining his intention to shrink the Bears Ears and the Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments. Both monuments span millions of acres in Utah and are among 27 national monuments that Trump ordered his Interior Secretary to review earlier this year.

Trump previously had condemned the act of creating the Utah monuments as a “massive federal land grab.”

Utah Republican leaders had complained that the monuments locked up too much federal land.

Both monuments were created by Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

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1:20 a.m.

President Donald Trump is outlining his plans to scale back two sprawling national monuments in Utah, responding to what he has condemned as a “massive federal land grab” by the government.

Trump is traveling to Salt Lake City on Monday to announce his intention to shrink the Bears Ears and the Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments spanning millions of acres in Utah. The two national monuments are among 27 that Trump ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review earlier this year.

Utah’s Republican leaders pressed Trump to launch the review, saying the monuments declared by Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton locked up too much federal land.

The planned changes have angered tribes and environmentalist groups who have vowed to sue to preserve the monuments.

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