President Trump said Sunday that East Potomac Golf Links, the 106-year-old public course not far from the White House, will close on Nov. 15 so work can begin on a championship layout designed by Tom Fazio. The new course should open in about 15 months, he said in a social media post that carried an artist's rendering of the redesign, the Associated Press reported.
In the post, Trump credited the Interior Department, under Secretary Doug Burgum, with developing the plan alongside Fazio. The finished course "will be open to the Public while, at the same time, designed to the Highest Level of Golf and able to hold World Class Tournaments such as the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup, and the Presidents Cup," he wrote, according to Golfweek. He added that the United States Golf Association, the PGA of America and the PGA Tour had already been notified, and predicted that the project would create many jobs and bring millions of dollars to the capital area.
Trump argued that the course is in such poor shape that it has to close. "The current Course is old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use or effect," he wrote. "It is in very poor condition, with falling, dangerous, and disease infested trees and, importantly, a collapsing and hazardous seawall," the AP quoted him as saying.
The timetable arrives in the middle of a lawsuit. On Oct. 13, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes barred the Interior Department and the National Park Service from cutting down any more trees at East Potomac through Oct. 26. Until then, the government must also give the court and the plaintiffs three business days' notice before making any irreparable change to a permanent feature of the course, CBS News reported. In the AP's account, the order halted the redevelopment until at least Oct. 26 and followed a scolding from the judge over a large-scale tree removal that the government began on a holiday weekend with little notice to the court or to the plaintiffs trying to stop the makeover.
The government alerted the plaintiffs at 4:55 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, and heavy equipment was operating the next morning, Golfweek reported. A Justice Department lawyer later told Reyes that 430 trees had been felled and that roughly 99 more had been identified for removal, while the plaintiffs said in a court filing that the crew had cut down all 529 trees in a single day and had planned to take down hundreds more, according to CBS News.
Reyes was blunt at an emergency hearing on Oct. 12. "More than being upset and furious right now, I am just deeply disappointed in the government," she told government lawyers, in remarks reported by Golfweek. "On what universe did anyone in your office think this was acceptable?"
Trump's post made no mention of the case. It did defend the tree cutting the judge had paused. When the course was first built, he wrote, "it was famous for no trees, with views of Washington, D.C., for all to see, but now, it is completely overgrown, dysfunctional, and unsafe."
The dispute returns to Reyes on Monday in the suit brought by the DC Preservation League and two golfers. She has ordered key administration officials to testify about the tree removal and whether it is tied to the president's plans for the links, and she is expected to take up the government's request, filed Friday, that she be replaced on the case. That motion questioned her impartiality and cited what the administration called "egregious" behavior from the bench in response to the Oct. 12 hearing, according to the AP. Over the weekend, the plaintiffs asked her for a longer-lasting preliminary injunction or a stay. Reyes has also ordered Jessica Bowron, the acting director of the National Park Service, and Gregory Wischer, a deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, to appear at the Oct. 19 hearing, CBS News reported.
Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs, said the course is part of a national park and recreation facility meant for everyone to enjoy. "Our litigation is intended to protect this community jewel for the people and communities it serves and we will continue to work with our plaintiffs to defend it from unlawful and harmful intrusion," Skye Perryman, the group's president and chief executive, said in a statement Sunday.
The course has been open to Washingtonians of all income levels, and opponents argue that a high-end rebuild would change the character of the place and make it less affordable. The plan calls for repairing the seawall, but the redesign is also expected to eliminate picnic areas, bike lanes, playgrounds and other recreation space, and the cost of the work is unknown, Golfweek reported.
The golf course is one piece of a broader push by Trump to renovate and refurbish places around Washington, including the White House and the Kennedy Center. Many of those projects have also been challenged in court, the AP noted.