A federal judge on Monday said she was “furious” with the Trump administration’s move over the weekend to cut down at least 430 trees from a Washington, DC, public golf course that President Donald Trump is seeking to renovate.
US District Judge Ana Reyes, who is overseeing a legal challenge to Trump’s plans to overhaul the East Potomac Golf Course, put a tentative hold on any further tree removal and is holding an emergency hearing Monday, in which she told Justice Department attorneys they had lost “credibility” with her because they gave less than a day’s notice before cutting down the trees.
“More than just being upset and furious right now, I am just beyond disappointed with the government,” Reyes said. When a DOJ attorney said they had done their “best” to give her and the plaintiffs a heads-up, the judge said, her voice raised, “No, you did your absolute worst.”
“I am thoroughly unamused right now,” Reyes also said.
The park is one of several renovation projects Trump is working on in Washington, DC. The administration’s desire to turn the public course into a professional course – a renovation that could cost between $20 million and $49 million – has been wrapped up in litigation and angered those who fear it may take away a public and affordable place to play golf in the nation’s capital.
The Interior Department first gave notice of the tree removal plans on Friday evening in a filing describing the tree-chopping as part of a long-standing maintenance plan that was not connected to “renovation or redesign of the Golf Course.” Crews were at the park by Saturday morning chopping down the trees.
Reyes demanded that Kevin Griess, a National Parks Service official who had submitted court filings describing removal, testify at the Monday court hearing.
Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, claimed he came up with the plan to cut down the trees after receiving an “education” from his staff on a 2019 directive to overhaul the golf course to make it more in line with how it looked when it opened. He said the removal plan was moving forward now because resources and NPS workforce that had been surged for the America 250 events over the summer had recently become available. He said the only awareness he had of Trump’s own plan to redo the golf course was from social media.
This is a developing story and will be updated.