WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s social media posts on the renovation of a historic golf course in the nation's capital are putting Justice Department lawyers in the uncomfortable position of explaining whether the president of the United States should be believed or not.
U.S. Judge Ana Reyes said Tuesday that the department should clarify "whether any plan exists to close East Potomac Golf Course on or around November 15, 2026.” She ordered Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. to appear in court Friday or Monday for a status hearing.
Tuesday's order came in response to Trump's social media post late Monday criticizing Reyes' temporary injunction stopping work at East Potomac Park.
That injunction, issued Monday, was in large part due to previous Trump announcements — via social media — that plans had been completed for the golf course and construction would begin next month. Trump said the facility would be closed 15 months. The following day he set the timetable to “immediately.”
Reyes said: “Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting president. Not to believe him that a cabinet secretary has ‘developed’ a federal land project. Not to believe him that the secretary’s agency will destroy a historic golf course already on the land. Not to believe him that ‘restoration work' will begin ’IMMEDIATELY!' Not to believe him that the course ‘will be closed’ for over a year. Not to believe what the president has repeatedly told the American public.
“And yet, here we are.”
The current preliminary injunction temporarily bars the government from removing or damaging any additional trees on the East Potomac Golf Course. The administration must give 10 days’ notice in writing before making any “irreparable modification” to any “forms or features” of the course while the lawsuit is active.
There are claims the work is causing ‘irreversible damage’
The plaintiffs challenging the project, DC Preservation League and two golfers, claim the work is inflicting irreversible damage. Critics say Trump's plan will make playing there unaffordable for the general public and destroy the site's other uses. At one hearing, the judge excoriated the government after workers cut down at least 400 trees over a holiday weekend with little notice to the plaintiffs. A follow-up hearing Oct. 19 led to stunning exchanges, with Woodward at one point protecting a Justice Department lawyer during questioning when Reyes asked whom she should believe.
“It’s difficult to put my colleague, a non-Senate-confirmed DOJ employee, in a position of contradicting the president,” Woodward said.
The course renovation project is part of Trump's aggressive campaign to leave his personal imprint on Washington's historic landscape.
Those plans include construction of a huge ballroom at the White House, a massive arch and the creation of a National Garden of American Heroes in West Potomac Park. DC Preservation League is part of a coalition of organizations, including the Cultural Landscape Foundation and one D.C. resident, who have filed lawsuits challenging those plans.
There are several cases where judges have taken actions and issued injunctions or restraining orders because of the Trump administration's push to begin work despite the pending lawsuits.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.