Judge blocks Trump bid to cut more trees at DC golf course

By BREANNE DEPPISCH, US SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER

Published: 13:50 EDT, 12 October 2026 | Updated: 13:50 EDT, 12 October 2026

A Biden-appointed federal judge tore into the Trump administration’s efforts to ‘beautify’ the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, DC, after it abruptly removed roughly 400 trees at the site less than two days earlier. At issue is President Donald Trump’s bid to overhaul the public golf course and replace it with a championship-caliber course. That plan has been held up in court for months following a lawsuit from several preservation groups. Plaintiffs said in a new filing Monday that the National Park Service had felled hundreds of trees at the site beginning late Friday and on Saturday, with ‘hundreds more’ slated for removal in the coming days – sparking the fury of US District Judge Ana Reyes, who promptly ordered an emergency status hearing. Reyes used the hearing to stress in no uncertain terms that the Trump administration is barred from proceeding with future tree-cutting before Tuesday or until her court issues an order clearing them to proceed. And she warned that if the government violates her order by even ‘two seconds,’ then ‘there are going to be contempt proceedings.’

Reyes struggled at times to keep her incredulity at bay during the hearing as she grilled Trump’s lawyers over its decision to proceed with the sprawling tree-clearing effort without providing notice. She demanded to know why the government did not notify her about the removals, ticking through a long list of times that Trump administration officials had vowed not to proceed with ‘demolition work’ without fist notifying the court. ‘Ignorance is not an excuse here,’ Reyes scolded a lawyer for the Trump administration, before noting that the massive tree removal has ‘cost the government all of its credibility’ in the case.

‘I am at a total loss to understand what has happened here,’ Reyes added. She suggested that the government ‘intended to do precisely what it has done – which is intentionally delay letting the plaintiffs and the court know what was happening so they can put a plan in place to clear hundreds and hundreds of trees.’ Reyes stressed that she had very explicitly instructed the Justice Department to update the court if it planned to ‘conduct any imminent, significant construction or destructive activities of an irretrievable character’ at the East Potomac Golf Course. ‘What universe did anyone in your office think that was acceptable?’

Reyes asked the Trump administration at another point during the hearing, her frustration apparent. The National Park Service’s superintendent for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, Kevin Griess, told the court in a filing several days earlier that it would begin clearing out a total of 529 trees, beginning over the weekend in an overgrown portion of East Potomac park dubbed ‘Trash Island.’ He told the court that the removals would not include removing any healthy trees, or trees ‘that are contributing features of the historical golf course.’ The removals would also be done, regardless of whether Trump proceeded with his plans for the golf course.

But preservationists countered that in a filing of their own, noting that the removals had proceeded ‘faster than anticipated’ and exceeded the stated list of 529 trees for removal. It also allegedly included healthy trees, plaintiffs said, including mature oak and maple trees that were removed. ‘This is a tactic we’ve seen before from the Trump-Vance administration – [to] act quickly to irrevocably alter a cherished national landmark, just to advance another one of President Trump’s pet vanity projects,’ Skye Perryman, the president of Democracy Forward, told the court in an emergency filing. ‘We are asking the court to act quickly before further unnecessary damage is done to a jewel of our national park system.’

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