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July 01, 2026

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Press Release Climate and EnvironmentEthics in GovernmentExecutive Branch

Draining National Parks to Fill the Reflecting Pool: The Trump Administration Is Redirecting Millions From National Treasures To DC Vanity Projects 

WASHINGTON — Today the Revolving Door Project released a report examining the National Park Service’s distribution of awards out of its Recreational Fee account so far in 2025-2026 as compared to 2023-2024. 

Using publicly accessible databases, found a startling 1673.23 percent increase in spending out of the rec fee account to fund projects in D.C., while spending to the nation’s top-ten most visited fee-collecting National Parks dropped by 75.52 percent. 

And, so far during 2025-2026 we found that D.C.-based contracting spending is far outpacing spending at the nation’s top 10-most visited fee-collecting parks AND our top 10-most visited non-fee collecting parks combined.

July 01, 2026

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Report Climate and EnvironmentEthics in Government

Draining National Parks to Fill the Reflecting Pool

The National Park Service (NPS) is charged with stewarding what author and environmentalist Wallace Stegner called America’s “best idea.” 

From the striking expanse of the Chihuahuan Desert, partially contained in Big Bend National Park, to the towering stone walls of Yosemite, the United States government has the privilege of caring for some of the most overwhelmingly beautiful vistas in the world. 

For more than 100 years, recreational fees have been collected at a subsect of our National Parks to explicitly and specifically support the management and responsible stewardship of these lands on behalf of present and future generations.

June 26, 2026

Xaver Clarke

Tracker Climate and EnvironmentCriminal JusticeEconomic PolicyEducationExecutive BranchHealthImmigrationRussell VoughtTrump Watch

Trump’s War on Public Data

Trump’s antagonistic relationship with facts is well documented. His most egregious attacks on reality aren’t just rhetorical. They threaten physical safety and American democracy. They target the ways we define what we know about the country and ourselves. Trump’s assault on public data is not a side project, it’s a core feature of his authoritarian approach to governance. By hollowing out federal statistics, limiting information gathering, and redacting inconvenient reports, the Trump administration is warping reality to suit its political narrative. The goal isn’t just to obscure the effects of the president’s policies, it’s to prevent the public from seeing them at all.

June 24, 2026 | Watchdog Weekly

Hannah Story Brown

Newsletter AbundanceClimate and EnvironmentCorporate CrackdownEducationEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchJudiciaryTech

Elite Corruption, From Silicon Valley to the Supreme Court

Welcome back to Watchdog Weekly. We’ve been busy so far this hurricane season, tracking the literal and metaphorical storms gathering on the horizon as elite immunity spreads its shadow over the American landscape. Here are some of the projects we’ve been working on lately: