Judge Blocks Trump's DC Golf Course Overhaul, Citing Contradictions With His Own Lawyers

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from making further changes to East Potomac Park, the municipal D.C. golf course the president wants to rebuild as a championship-level venue. President Donald Trump said hours later that the Interior Department will appeal and that construction will begin Nov. 15 anyway.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a preliminary injunction in a 70-page opinion that dwells less on golf than on credibility. "Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting president," she wrote. "And yet, here we are."

The fight escalated after the government cut down 430 trees on the course with less than a day's notice. That set off two lengthy and at times heated court hearings. Government officials insisted the tree clearing had nothing to do with the renovations Trump had touted on social media, and said there was no final plan at all. That contradicted the president's own posts. On the morning of last week's seven-hour hearing, Trump wrote that work would begin on the course "immediately." Hours later, administration officials testified under oath that they knew of no final plan.

Reyes extended what had been a two-week halt on tree removal. The government may not cut down, "substantially prune or otherwise damage or impair" any trees at the park without a court order. It must also give "no less than ten business days' written advance notice" before closing any part of the park or making any "irreversible modification." The judge wrote that the ruling "does not end the round: it simply marks the ball until the parties can fully and fairly litigate this case."

She sided with the plaintiffs, the D.C. Preservation League and two local golfers represented by Democracy Forward, that a renovation plan exists, which they call the "Washington National Plan." Reyes wrote she "cannot pinpoint the exact date at which the Plan became final," but concluded it happened "well before October 15, 2026." She called the government's explanation for the tree removal, that it was carrying out recommendations from a 2019 National Park Service report, "pretextual." She also questioned the testimony of Gregory Wischer, a deputy chief of staff at Interior who was photographed carrying rolled-up concept plans while accompanying Trump and golf course architect Tom Fazio on a June tour. Wischer said he spontaneously became interested in tree management "in mid September. At the East Potomac Golf Course," Reyes noted.

The judge rejected the administration's complaint that the case rests on "a handful of tweets." Those posts, she wrote, "are statements from the President of the United States, and from the Secretary of the Interior, about actions within their purview." She also found the Interior Department likely violated the National Environmental Policy Act by "impermissibly segmenting its review" of the plan's environmental effects. Plaintiffs say the government has been splitting the work into smaller projects, such as the debris dumped from last year's White House East Wing demolition and this month's tree cutting, to avoid required reviews.

Reyes stressed she has no interest in policing landscaping. "The Court earlier stated, 'I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees,'" she wrote. "The Court still does not speak for the trees. It speaks only for the rule of law."

In a Truth Social post late Monday, Trump said the judge "has absolutely no right to hold up this very important and beautiful Project" and said having to give notice to a judge with no expertise in golf or construction "is not fair, appropriate, or Constitutional." He said the park would close for 15 months and that the redeveloped course could host the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup while staying open to the public "at a reduced rate for those living in Washington, D.C." Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, said the group is grateful the court "intervened to stop the Trump-Vance administration's greed and lawlessness while the case continues."

Trump's rendering, shared earlier this month, merges the park's three courses into one that covers the whole peninsula and appears to remove the perimeter road that runners and cyclists use every day. The project is one of several ways Trump is trying to leave a mark on the capital, alongside a White House ballroom, his name on the Kennedy Center and plans for a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery.