Politics
Judge signals she will keep blocking tree cutting at a D.C. golf course Trump wants rebuilt now
In a tense hearing a federal judge questioned officials who said no renovation plan exists even as President Trump posted that work would start immediately.
A federal judge in Washington said Monday that she is likely to extend her order stopping the Trump administration from cutting down more trees at East Potomac Golf Links. She made clear she did not believe the government's claim that the clearing had nothing to do with President Donald Trump's plan to remake the public course.
A day of contradictions
The hearing before U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes stretched for about eight hours. Justice Department lawyers told her there is no final plan to renovate the course and no plan to close it. Hours earlier Trump had posted that work was "scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY." A day before that he wrote that golf course architect Tom Fazio had drawn up a plan for a championship course and that the old layout would close on Nov. 15.
Government lawyers said they hold no contract with Fazio. The acting director of the National Park Service testified that she first learned of a closure date from the president's post. An Interior Department chief of staff said he knew of no work set to begin next month.
Reyes pressed a Justice Department lawyer on how to square that testimony with the president's words. When she asked whether she should believe the lawyers or the president, the government said the court should believe its lawyers. The lawyer described the post as true with the caveat that nothing was final.
More than 400 trees down
Crews felled more than 400 trees at the course over the Columbus Day holiday weekend. The administration says the work was routine cleanup under a landscaping report from 2019. Reyes said there was "no universe" in which all of it happened by coincidence. She has already found that the government acted in bad faith and has barred more cutting through Oct. 26.
She signaled she is unlikely to stop all activity in the park. She is weighing whether to require notice before any future work and has not decided whether to call Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to testify. Burgum has said removing hazardous trees returns the course to its historic look and that the goal is a top course with low prices.
Who is fighting the plan
A historic preservation group and two residents sued in February. They argue the administration is skipping environmental and preservation reviews and that the overhaul would turn a century-old public site with three courses for golfers of every level into a single championship layout.
Runners have weighed in too. The organizer of a 10-mile race that has used Hains Point for more than 50 years said his group has received no plans from the Park Service. Thousands of runners, cyclists, walkers and picnickers use the area all year.
Threats against the judge
The day began with the president calling Reyes a "crazed lunatic" online. The Justice Department had also asked her to step aside from the case and she turned that request down Sunday. Near the end of the hearing Reyes said relatives had texted her worried about death threats. She said a judge facing threats over a golf course is not what the nation's founders had in mind.
Trump told reporters the course is old and worn out and that the Interior Department has every right to fix up its own property.
