BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration wants to sell public lands to states, tribes and local governments as part of an effort to “decrease the size of the federal estate," according to a new five-year plan presented by the Interior Department.
Agency officials said the sale of federal property would allow the government to focus resources on “nationally significant" lands. They offered no details on what lands could be sold, nor the scope or location of potential sales.
The proposal drew quick objections from some lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana, who was Interior Secretary in Trump's first term.
The plan also calls for strategic land transfers and exchanges to support greater energy production, a centerpiece of the administration's pro-fossil fuel policies. It reflects the Trump administration’s view of most public lands as assets to be used, rather than to be set aside for preservation.
The Interior Department oversees more than 750,000 square miles (1.9 million square kilometers) of land — an area greater than Texas and California combined — along with vast underground mineral reserves. That puts the agency at the center of a contentious, decades-long debate over whether the government controls too much land.
The Associated Press sent emails to Interior officials Wednesday requesting comment and further details.
Most public lands are in Western states. In some, the government controls the vast majority of land, protecting it from potential exploitation but also hindering growth. Nevada, for example, is almost 80% under federal control.
Interior officials said that under the plan a portion of any land sale proceeds would go back to the buyer for conservation purposes elsewhere.
Yet it’s uncertain if Interior Secretary Doug Burgum can achieve the administration’s goals without cooperation from Congress.
Zinke’s office said in a statement that he “remains firmly opposed to the sale or transfer of public lands." He will vote against any legislation on the issue if it happens before the lawmaker leaves Congress at the end of this term, the statement said.
The ranking member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee also pledged to fight any federal land sales or privatization efforts.
“These lands belong to the American people, not private interests looking to cash in. Public lands belong in public hands,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat.
Some Western lawmakers last year sought to sell vast tracts of land in Utah and Nevada, saying that could generate revenue and ease growth pressures in booming cities. Among the proposals, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee suggested selling more than 2 million acres (8,000 square kilometers) to states or other entities.
Those efforts failed amid bipartisan opposition.
The plan sets out a road map for the Interior Department's priorities and actions between 2026 and 2030. Future administrations would not be bound by it.
The department regulates mining, drilling, grazing, recreation and other activities that many state and local officials want greater control over. Interior includes the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The agency's strategic plan was last updated four years ago under former Democratic President Joe Biden.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum as he speaks during a tour of the White House Ballroom construction at the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - A view of the suburbs of Las Vegas from atop the Stratosphere tower looking west down Sahara Ave., towards the Spring Mountains, Feb. 9, 2005. (AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has issued a warning to Democrats over their planned probes into the Trump administration, going as far as claiming that such investigations — a standard oversight function of Congress — may amount to “blatant criminality.”
White House counsel Will Scharf issued the warning in a letter dated Monday to Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
Garcia most likely would chair the powerful panel in the new Democratic-controlled Congress that is seated in January. Garcia warned Trump officials to “lawyer up” as his party was on the way to stunning victories in last week's midterm election.
In response, Scharf wrote that “threats to executive branch officials designed to deter them from public service, or process designed merely to abuse or instill fear in the recipient may cross the line into blatant criminality." The letter’s existence was first reported by Punchbowl News.
It's just the latest shot across the bow as the White House prepares to square off against newly empowered Democrats in the House and Senate next year, a showdown with major implications for congressional authority and the balance of power between the branches of government.
Outside the Capitol on Wednesday, Garcia told reporters that “Donald Trump is clearly hiding something” and that Democrats “are not going to be threatened or intimidated.”
“The truth is that he needs to understand that Congress is a coequal branch of government,” Garcia said.
He doubled down on his “lawyer up” post after the election, saying the White House was “thin-skinned” and couldn't “take any sort of heat.”
“If you have abused the American public, you should lawyer up," Garcia said. “If you're a corporate CEO and you're ripping off the American people, you should lawyer up.”
Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda to look at how Trump and his family have become wealthier since he returned to office. The Republican president and his White House have long denied any wrongdoing.
Garcia also wants to look at the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Other targets include Trump’s White House ballroom and other construction projects, as well as the Trump family’s role in mineral deals and Trump’s crypto dealings with special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Kentucky Republican James Comer, the current chair of the Oversight Committee who conducted a wide-ranging investigation of former President Joe Biden and his family, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he had not yet read the letter from the White House, but stressed that the panel is "very independent.”
“Regardless of who is in the White House, there's always going to be a strong desire for the Oversight Committee to be a check and balance on the executive branch, regardless of the political scenario," Comer said.
He said he thought Garcia's “lawyer up” comments were in “bad taste” but Democrats "won the election and it's going to be his committee. So if he gets out of line I would assume that his members will try to rein him in.”
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday that “there could be” a crime to investigate if rhetoric from Democrats turned threatening. He appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone during an appearance in Missouri this week, saying “Congress has oversight authority. It always has, it always will. The Department of Justice, the federal government, works with Congress to address questions they have — whether it’s through subpoenas or letters — so we’re not going to stop working with Congress.”
“Nothing I’ve said this weekend, or in the past, should suggest otherwise,” he added.
Outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Trump critic, said he hopes Democrats don't squander their new powers on “stupid things.”
“I hope they have real hearings about real things, not another Russia-gate,” he said, referring to a previous congressional inquiry into ties between Trump's first presidential campaign in 2016 and Russia. Trump repeatedly denounced that investigation as a “hoax.”
“I think there is some real corruption there around the fringes,” Massie said about Trump and some of those around the president. Massie lost his primary election to a Trump-backed GOP challenger.
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., who is expected to be the next House Ethics Committee chairman, said he would not back down from any investigations because of warnings from the White House.
“If they're trying to intimidate, at least for me, it’s not going to get me,” said DeSaulnier, who was a Republican before he switched to the Democratic Party in 2000. “I don’t work for a mafia, a mob organization.”
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker and AP video journalist Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.
FILE - Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks outside of the Capitol about articles of impeachment he introduced against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
The U.S. Capitol is photographed Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
New members of the 120th Congress gather for the first day of new member orientation at the Capitol, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Attorney General Todd Blanche stand in the door of Air Force One was Marine One lands with President Donald Trump aboard, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen))
President Donald Trump, followed by Dana White, UFC president and CEO, arrives to speak in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
