General
DOGE Could Gut a Piece of Trump Family History
In the heart of Seattle, a national park memorializes the grit of the Klondike gold rush, where the president’s grandfather built his early wealth. The park is now under threat.
In 1891, as Seattle was rebuilding from a catastrophic fire that had destroyed nearly all of its central business district, Frederick Trump arrived looking to find his fortune.
The 22-year-old German immigrant acquired a restaurant, his first foray into the world of hospitality, serving patrons in the seedy but bustling neighborhood now known as Pioneer Square. Later, after prospectors spoke of gold riches in the Yukon, Mr. Trump joined thousands of stampeders heading north.
The legacy of the Klondike gold rush has persisted for generations, shaping Seattle, the rest of the West Coast and the early wealth of the Trump family. These days, along the same streets where Mr. Trump lived and worked, the city’s only national park documents that time period, featuring exhibits about the travails of the gold seekers and a walking tour where guides tell the history of the neighborhood, usually pointing out Mr. Trump’s old haunts.
But the future of that park is now at risk as the presidential administration of Mr. Trump’s grandson, Donald J. Trump, hunts for ways to slash government spending. Spurred by his Department of Government Efficiency, officials have proposed terminating the lease for the building that houses Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
“If you don’t have the building, you don’t have the park,” said Rob Smith, who leads the Northwest office of the National Parks Conservation Association. When Congress created the park 50 years ago, lawmakers specified that it be sited in the Pioneer Square neighborhood.
