What Trump announced
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that his administration has developed a plan to redevelop the East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C. According to NBC News, the course has been at the center of a legal fight over his renovation plans.
Trump said the Interior Department worked with golf course architect Tom Fazio on “a plan to build a World Class Championship Golf Course on the site of the current East Potomac Golf Links, located in Washington, D.C.” He said the finished course would be open to the public. He also said it would be designed to a high enough standard to host tournaments such as the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.
The president said renovations would begin on Nov. 15 and take about 15 months. He described the current course as “old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use or effect.”
The legal challenge and the judge's response
A preservation group and two D.C. residents have challenged the proposed renovation in court. Last week, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes barred the administration from cutting down more trees at the course through Oct. 26, after the administration had already removed hundreds of trees.
NBC News reported that Reyes said she was “furious.” She said she had been hearing from the plaintiffs' side that this would happen, but had told them she trusted the government. “I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done,” she said at the time, according to the report. She also said the episode “cost the government all of its credibility.”
Reyes ordered the administration to give her and the plaintiffs three business days' written advance notice before making any “irreparable modification” to the course. She had earlier declined the plaintiffs' request for a restraining order because Trump administration lawyers said they would give ample notice of large-scale work.
Questions about a formal plan and a recusal request
National Park Service officials told Reyes last week that they knew of no formal plan to renovate East Potomac beyond what they had seen from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump's earlier social media posts. Trump's Sunday post is the first description in the source material of a plan developed with Fazio.
On Friday, the administration asked Reyes to recuse herself. It argued that her “histrionics in prior hearings have clearly demonstrated she is no longer impartial.” The judge has scheduled a hearing for Monday and has called on the acting director of the National Park Service and the Interior Department's chief of staff to testify under oath.
A pattern of changes to the capital
NBC News noted that the golf course is the latest in a string of major changes Trump has tried to make to the Washington landscape. He is continuing to build a White House ballroom and has pushed ahead with plans for a “triumphal arch.”
His handpicked Kennedy Center board has also voted to close the arts center for renovations. The administration moved to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as well, though the lining ended up peeling, according to NBC News.
