Roughly 430 trees had already been removed before a federal judge intervened. According to the legal filing, the National Park Service cleared them from the East Potomac Golf Course in early October. The 106-year-old public course in southwest Washington, D.C., was ordered cleared by the Department of the Interior to make way for a championship-level venue.
Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden-appointed Judge for the District of Columbia, issued a temporary restraining order halting further cutting. In her filing, she summed up the government’s case in five blunt lines: “The reason? Disputed. The budget? Unclear. The environmental impact? Unstudied. The urgency? None. Next steps: bulldoze hundreds more.”
Who Profits
The project has one stated purpose: President Donald Trump’s redesign. Reyes concluded that “government officials raced to undertake the TMP because President Trump demands haste on his redesign, and not because of some newfound zeal to implement a small part of a seven-year-old CLR.” The government cites a 2019 National Parks Service report as its authority. That report said a championship-style venue would require the removal of several hundred trees.
Trump confirmed the changes in a June post on Truth Social. He called the course “virtually unplayable” and said it would be built to the “Highest Standards of Golf,” but “in such a way that the General Public will love it.” An Interior Department spokesperson described the work as “selective tree and vegetation work to restore the course,” intended to restore its “historic character and reopen views toward landmarks.”
The court record describes a different scale. Reyes said officials had removed more than 500 trees without adequate notice, despite her repeated instructions that the government notify parties before major demolition began. At Monday’s hearing, she said the conduct had “cost the government all of its credibility” in the case. She was at a “total loss” over its actions.
Who Pays
The course sits on public ground. It’s also a site of working-class and Black history. In 1941, Black golfers challenged segregation there, and then-Interior Secretary Harold Ickes ordered the course opened to all players. That was 85 years ago. The land they fought to enter is now being reshaped for a venue Trump says he wants built to the “Highest Standards of Golf.”
Reyes warned that without an injunction, “the ground, landscape and vistas will be irrevocably altered” because “destroyed trees cannot be replaced.” A footnote adds: “Just ask the Lorax.”
The State’s Role
The tree removal wasn’t a rogue act. The National Park Service carried it out under an Interior Department order. The agency charged with protecting public land ran the chainsaws, following a timetable the court found reflected the president’s demand for speed, not urgency in the 2019 plan.
The golf course isn’t the only project. In his second term, Trump has pushed a string of renovations in the capital, many tied to semiquincentennial celebrations over the summer. They include paving over the Rose Garden, Oval Office decorations and a ballroom in the East Wing, which has faced legal challenges and criticism. Renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool encountered algal blooms and peeling material, along with a legal challenge from the nonprofit Cultural Landscape Foundation. The group argued that the administration failed to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act. A proposed triumphal arch in front of Arlington National Cemetery faces its own legal challenges, as the Arlington County Board seeks to halt the “feverish pace” of construction.
Liberal Remedy, Limited Reach
Skye Perryman, the Democracy Forward President and CEO, said Monday: “This is a tactic we’ve seen before from the Trump-Vance administration—act quickly to irrevocably alter a cherished national landmark, just to advance another one of President Donald Trump’s pet vanity projects.”
The remedy is a temporary restraining order, which expires Monday, October 26, 12 days from today. The hundreds of trees already cut stay cut. The court found that destroyed trees cannot be replaced. The order pauses the bulldozers. It doesn’t return what’s gone, and it doesn’t decide who controls what happens to public land once the order lapses.