Trump to Close Municipal Course for Championship Plan

President Trump said Sunday that his administration will close East Potomac Golf Links, a municipal golf course in Washington, within four weeks. He plans to replace it with what he called a world-class championship venue. The new course should be playable in about 15 months, he said, and professional golf organizations could stage major events there.

A Municipal Course, a Private Designer

Trump said he had secured a design by Tom Fazio, a golf-course designer who has planned other courses owned by the Trump Organization. The announcement didn’t identify the project’s cost, who would pay, or who would control the replacement course. Nor did it say whether the new course would remain municipal or how access might change after the overhaul.

In a social media post Sunday morning, Trump said professional golf organizations “will soon have one of the best and most spectacular golf courses anywhere in the world to put on their list of great places to play, and hold major events.” Hosting major events is part of the stated purpose, though the course scheduled to close now serves as a municipal facility. The post didn’t spell out what financial arrangements, if any, would accompany those events.

Trump shared a rendering of the planned course. It resembled a blurred-out image on his desk in a Friday photograph posted by Katie Zacharia, his press secretary, who left the role after less than a week.

Court Challenge and Federal Action

A federal lawsuit opposing changes to the course gained renewed urgency after Trump announced the plan. A historical-preservation group and two Washington residents sued in federal court to stop changes. Trump’s Sunday post appeared to affirm their warnings that the administration might seize the existing course before they could meaningfully challenge the plan.

In July, a federal judge ordered the administration to provide long-term plans and not carry out a surprise overhaul. The order followed earlier changes Trump had made to the East Wing of the White House and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The base account doesn’t specify the year of the July order.

Earlier this month, the Interior Department removed hundreds of trees over a holiday weekend. The court and the group suing to stop changes had less than a day to respond. The department acted before Trump announced the finalized plan and the schedule for closing the municipal course.

The administration now says the course will close within four weeks, and the replacement should be playable about 15 months after the announcement. Those timeframes came while the federal lawsuit remained a live challenge to the proposed changes. The article gives no project budget, expected revenues, public-access terms, or details on how the administration would address the judge’s order to provide long-term plans.

The dispute centers on a municipal course, the administration’s overhaul plan, and a federal challenge brought by a preservation group and two residents. The president’s announcement sets out the closure timeline. Financial terms and future access rules remain unspecified.