A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from removing or damaging trees at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington DC, placing the president’s proposed overhaul of the publicly owned course on hold while a legal challenge proceeds.
US District Judge Ana Reyes issued a preliminary injunction preventing further tree work and ordered the government to give 10 days’ notice before making any “irreparable modification” to the course.
Her 70-page ruling came after more than 430 trees were felled earlier this month, in an action the judge said had been carried out with little notice to the court or the plaintiffs.
“The Court earlier stated, ‘I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees,’” Ms Reyes wrote. “The Court still does not speak for the trees. It speaks only for the rule of law.”
Judge challenges government’s account of tree removal
The case was brought by the D.C. Preservation League, which argues that the administration breached the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to assess the environmental impact of its plans for the course.
Ms Reyes said the organisation was likely to succeed in showing that the proposed renovation required an environmental review. She also rejected the government’s argument that the trees had been removed as part of an unrelated maintenance operation.
The judge said she did not find credible the evidence of the Interior Department’s deputy chief of staff, including his description of the work as “cleaning up” the course.
In a hearing two weeks ago, Ms Reyes told government lawyers they had “lost credibility” and said she was “furious” and “thoroughly unamused” after learning that hundreds of trees had been cut down.
She wrote that she had initially been reluctant to intervene, saying she would “much prefer not to have to resolve Lorax v. Once-ler redux”. But she said action became necessary because “the Government did what it assured all it would not do”.
Mr Trump has promoted the project as a “World Class Championship Golf Course” capable of hosting major professional tournaments, contrasting it with what he called the existing course’s “dysfunctional” condition.
He said the course would close for construction on November 15 and reopen in 15 months. In a post on Truth Social, he called the judge’s ruling “unconstitutional” and said his administration would appeal.
“To have to give advanced notices to a judge who has no expertise in Golf, Architecture, Landscaping, Construction, or anything else having to do with building such a World Class Project, is not fair, appropriate, or Constitutional,” Mr Trump wrote.
Judge Reyes also criticised the apparent conflict between the president’s public statements about an imminent renovation and the Justice Department’s claim that it was too early to challenge the plans because no final decision had been made.
“Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President,” she wrote.
The dispute has also led to a personal clash between Mr Trump and Ms Reyes. The president has called her a “crazed lunatic”, while government lawyers unsuccessfully sought her removal from the case, accusing her of “open hostility” and arguing that she was no longer impartial.
Ms Reyes rejected the recusal request, saying the government’s conduct, rather than any sudden bias on her part, had prompted her response. She cited the decision to remove more than 500 healthy trees, notice given at 4.55pm on the Friday of a holiday weekend, and the felling of nearly 430 trees in a single day.
