{"id":625305,"date":"2026-05-05T18:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/625305\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:25:12","slug":"rubble-from-trump-ballroom-dumped-at-dc-golf-course-has-toxic-metals-data-shows-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/625305\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubble from Trump ballroom dumped at DC golf course has toxic metals, data shows | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge weighed into a dispute over Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s controversial plans to revamp a historic Washington DC golf course on Monday, warning the president\u2019s administration to tread carefully as it also dumped \u201ctoxic\u201d rubble from the demolished White House East Wing there.<\/p>\n

District court judge Ana Reyes likened the saga to an episode of the hit television comedy Parks and Recreation during an emergency hearing in the capital on an application for a temporary restraining order filed by the DC Preservation League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m no Amy Poehler,\u201d she said, referring to the show\u2019s lead actor, who played a character blindly supportive of government initiatives regardless of their merit.<\/p>\n

Reyes ultimately decided to let maintenance work continue at the waterfront East Potomac golf links, a public course, but warned of \u201cserious consequences\u201d if the Trump administration<\/a> moved ahead at speed with its reported redevelopment plans.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post said on Saturday it had obtained a fundraising document<\/a> showing Trump\u2019s intention to \u201cdramatically remake parts of Washington\u2019s waterfront\u201d, including creating an exclusive championship course and building a \u201cnational garden of American heroes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks for the National Park Service (NPS), Kevin Griess, told the court that no major renovation work was planned for the coming days, contrary to a report<\/a> published on the news website Notus on Friday that said the course would close after Sunday\u2019s final tee time.<\/p>\n

But he conceded that a \u201csafety assessment\u201d was under way, prompting Reyes to caution the government that it must provide reasonable notice if it planned to close the course, cut down more than 10 trees or send in any construction equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s just say, given some issues around the District recently, I would have a particular concern that we not act first and ask forgiveness later,\u201d Reyes said, according to the Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause that\u2019s not going to be acceptable, and I want you to make sure that that\u2019s fully communicated. If anything like that happens, there are going to be serious consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes was referring to other recent incendiary construction initiatives by the Trump administration, including the demolition of the White House East Wing in October to make way for a new $400m ballroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rubble from that project dumped at the East Potomac course tested positive for lead, chromium and other toxic metals, the Post reported<\/a> on Monday, citing soil data<\/a> \u201cabove laboratory reporting limits\u201d published recently by the NPS.<\/p>\n

The toxic soil story was first published<\/a> in January by the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, which won a Pultizer prize on Monday for reporting on another topic.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s hearing was the latest development in a battle over the future of East Potomac, one of three municipal courses in Washington DC that Trump seized in December by terminating a 50-year lease<\/a> held by the non-profit National Links Trust, which denied a claim it had allowed the links to deteriorate.<\/p>\n

That same month, the president confirmed to the Wall Street Journal<\/a> that he had set his sights on transforming the courses. \u201cIf we do them, we\u2019ll do it really beautifully,\u201d he told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

Tom Fazio, who has designed four Trump courses, visited the East Potomac site under an alias in late 2025, Golf Digest reported<\/a>, suggesting that redevelopment plans were already in place long before the lease was terminated.<\/p>\n

Reyes appeared to agree with that summation during the remote hearing on Monday. \u201cSomething is happening,\u201d Reyes told government attorneys, according to Golf Digest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what it is. I trust that you don\u2019t know what it is. [But] when you have a pledge going out with pictures, asking people for money, we\u2019re pretty far down the road, OK? So I think there\u2019s been more happening. I think it\u2019s been further along than has been identified in the pleadings to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DC Preservation League first sued in February and made an emergency application for a temporary restraining order on Saturday after reports of East Potomac\u2019s imminent closure were published.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is supposed to be open to the public and accessible to the public of every different background, and we wanted to keep it that way,\u201d the league\u2019s executive director, Rebecca Miller, told CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Miller also challenged the NPS position that soil sampling from the East Wing rubble had been misinterpreted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an earlier filing on the ballroom, they contended that one of the reasons they had to demolish the East Wing was because it was full of contaminants, and now they\u2019re saying, \u2018Well, there\u2019s no contaminants,\u2019 or, \u2018Nothing to see here,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that\u2019s used by the public and children and could be really hazardous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian has contacted the White House, the NPS and Department of the Interior for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge weighed into a dispute over Donald Trump\u2019s controversial plans to revamp a historic Washington DC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-625305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}