Two Democratic representatives from the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday delivered to the White House trash they picked up from national parks as they urged President Trump to end the partial government shutdown.
California Reps. Jackie Speier and Jared Huffman carried bins labeled “Trump Trash” to the front gates of the White House. They collected the garbage last week from parks at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service, one of the government agencies whose current funding has been allowed to lapse.
{mosads}In front of the White House on Tuesday, Speier said the government shutdown has left the country with “a real problem on our hands.”
“Mr. Trump, here’s your trash,” she said. “We did the work of some of your employees at the National Park Service, who by the way, in our area, have a hard time making it because it’s such a high-cost area. … We have a real problem on our hands.”
Most national parks have remained open to visitors during the government shutdown, but maintenance for the parks has been suspended. That has resulted in reports of trash piling up at parks across the country.
The White House itself — as well as the land in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., where Speier and Huffman delivered the trash — is also administered by the National Park Service.
The shutdown, which is currently in its 18th day, was sparked when Trump refused to sign a government spending bill that didn’t include at least $5 billion in funding for a wall along the southern border.
Trump is set to give a prime-time address on Tuesday to speak on the border and the government shutdown.
Huffman on Tuesday called Trump’s speech to the nation unnecessary and joked that there may soon be enough trash in national parks to “build a wall.”
“We don’t need a nationally televised address from the White House to solve this problem tonight,” Huffman said. “What we need is for President Trump to wake up and smell the coffee cups and the diapers and the burrito wrappers and the trash that is piling up. Soon we’ll have enough of it to build a wall, perhaps.”
Huffman also said Tuesday that he hoped that he and Speier could provide a “reality check” to Trump by delivering the trash.
“Let it never be said that I didn’t give anything to Donald Trump,” he said. “Because today I am bringing boxes of trash … to provide a reality check to the president so that he understands that his political stunt in shutting down the government over the border wall has real-world consequences.”