Sculpture criticizes impact of DOGE on National Parks Service
By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
On Saturday, Aug. 2, a large sculpture of Elon Musk’s head appeared in Yellowstone National Park roads on a trailer as part of a demonstration to protest funding cuts to the National Parks Service from the Department of Government Efficiency led by Musk earlier this year. The Yellowstone demonstration marks the fourth of its kind in as many weeks, following separate appearances at Arches, Yosemite and Mount Rainier national parks.
According to an email from organizers, the statue spent the Saturday in Yellowstone “lording over the long lines and congested trails while bragging about cutting staffing and resources with the phrases: ‘Make America Wait Again’ and ‘Now With Longer Lines Thanks To DOGE Cuts!’”
The spectacle was organized by a small group of individuals who wish to remain anonymous, although one spoke with EBS on the phone under the pseudonym “Matthew.”
“We just want to let this bizarre thing speak for itself,” he explained. “… We are not associated with any corporation or any official organization or political party or anything like that. We are just a group of creative, politically active, artistic type people.”
‘Everybody loves the outdoors’
Matthew explained the group’s desire to create a “relevant but harmless” protest against Elon Musk and his DOGE campaign in an era when political discourse often takes shape as “screaming” on the internet or in the streets.
Made of 3D-printed styrofoam, reinforced with wire and wood and covered in epoxy for stone-like texture to depict Musk’s “self-satisfied smirk” from his stint in Washington, D.C., the activists identified national parks as the perfect venue to showcase the effects of Musk’s budget cuts.
“For one thing, I think national parks are very non-partisan—they’re a distinctly American thing that has no political sway,” Matthew said. “Everybody loves the outdoors.”
Furthermore, most park rangers whose jobs were cut are not people looking to get rich, but passion-driven stewards of the outdoors—making Musk’s cuts feel “particularly evil.”
He added that while Yellowstone was not the first stop, it was the group’s first, and most obvious choice.
“Because it is the most iconic and American park in the United States… It’s like the apple pie of national parks, you know? So it was really, really exciting to be there and have this silly head be there,” he said.
Yellowstone Public Affairs representatives for the National Parks Service declined to comment regarding the impacts of DOGE cuts on park staff.
In a July 23 report about staffing troubles at U.S. national parks, Stephanie Sy of PBS NewsHour said Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill “rescinded $267 million earmarked for [national] park improvements and the administration has proposed a further 38% budget cut next year.”
The National Parks Conservation Association reported in mid-July that NPS has lost 24% of its permanent staff since January “and the agency’s capacity to care for our nation’s most iconic places is collapsing.”
Kevin Heatley, former superintendent of Crater Lake National Park, described the directives from DOGE on the National Park Service as “unacceptable” and “untenable” in justifying his June 2 resignation from the role.
In the same PBS story, Jesse Chakrin, executive director of The Fund for People in Parks, described NPS staff morale as “as low as I have ever seen it in 24 years,” describing daily emotional tolls on park workers as “heartbreaking.”
“I hope that the American public will continue to care about and advocate for their national park system,” Chakrin told PBS. “It is truly a treasure of the world and it is one of the beating hearts of our democracy.”
Representing pure grassroots advocacy, the Giant Elon Musk head is at least raising eyebrows as it garners reports from Outside and Fox News among a flurry of regional outlets.
Matthew said the statue has been met by park visitors with mostly laughter, curiosity and photos. Some have gotten angry and offered the middle finger. From park staff, it’s been mostly confusion and laughter.
“Nobody’s, like, thrown anything at it,” he said.
The Giant Elon Musk head is on its way to the next stop, although Matthew would not divulge further.
