Four Leaps Backward: Trump Endangers the Endangered Species Act and Its Protected Habitats

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, adopted with overwhelming, near-unanimous bipartisan support and credited with saving 99% of listed species from extinction, is widely considered one of the most powerful and successful endangered species laws in the world. Yet that record of success is now under attack. In an unprecedented, coordinated assault on the ESA in just the last few months, the Trump administration (“Administration”) took four leaps backward, particularly on habitat protection, where its actions reflect an it’s-just-habitat philosophy, as satirized in the image above. Unless blocked, these measures will dramatically erode the ESA's protections, favoring instead oil and gas production, mining, logging, ranching, land development and other commercial interests. This article unpacks those actions, the Administration’s stated rationale for them and the legal actions challenging them.