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Is Trump giving away part of Yosemite National Park to Kingsbarn Realty? What we know so far
Trump administration reportedly pressured NPS to give Kingsbarn Realty a Yosemite land parcel, raising concerns over a proposed road to its nearby resort.
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An alarming new report regarding the Donald Trump administration's plan with the Yosemite National Park in California has left national park enthusiasts concerned.
NOTUS, a Washington, D.C. based news outlet, reported exclusively on Friday that the National Park Service (NPS) is "under pressure" from the Trump administration to give a quarter-mile stretch of Yosemite National Park to a private developer. According to the report, the land parcel located at a corner of the park is being considered to be given to the developer as part of a land exchange between the company and the federal government.
The company in question has been identified in the report as Kingsburn Realty Capital, based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. It adds that the federal government and the Trump administration are in talks to make the transaction a success. NOTUS cited four anonymous sources familiar with the talks and agency documents that they reviewed. They went on to claim that the project has the "full weight" of the US Interior Department.
Is Trump Really Trying To Give Away Part Of Yosemite To Kingsbarn?
The report states that the discussion to give away the land parcel to Kingsbarn Realty Capital started in the Spring of 2025. The plan is to make the transfer through a "web of limited-liability companies" operated by Kingsbarn, it adds.
"Officials are proposing the Park Service give up the land or “interest” in the land in the form of an easement, and in return receive land of equal value somewhere in California that has yet to be decided," the journalist behind the report, Anna Kramer, wrote in the piece on NOTUS.
Why Does Kingsbarn Realty Want The Land?
The report goes on to describe why Kingsbarn Realty Capital wants to acquire a part of the land at Yosemite - and not anywhere else in California. It states that the company already owns a property "about five miles from one of the park’s defining ancient sequoia groves." The CEO of the company, Jeff Pori, is reportedly planning a road on the acquired land, which would give the resort a private throughfare access to Yosemite.
The road, the report explains, could significantly increase the value of the property, as the current entrance point to the park lies more than 10 miles away - which is around an hour's drive. “They want us to be responsive to the property owner and their lobbyists or people, and they want us to work with these folks,” one of the sources told NOTUS. “The political pressure being brought to bear is very unusual.”
Who Are Kingsbarn Realty Capital?
Kingsbarn Realty Capital is a Las Vegas-based real-estate investment company founded by Jeff Pori that specializes in structured real-estate investment programs. Pori is the company's CEO and a veteran commercial real-estate investor and developer with roughly three decades of experience.
Before Kingsbarn, he founded Transwestern Real Estate Capital and completed more than $400 million in syndicated property investments.
