Trump announces plans to renovate D.C. golf course amid legal battle

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that renovations of East Potomac Golf Links would begin Nov. 15 and would take 15 months to complete.Pete Kiehart / The Washington Post via GettyShareAdd NBC News to GoogleOct. 18, 2026, 2:09 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 18, 2026, 3:00 PM EDTBy Megan Brand and Gary GrumbachPresident Donald Trump announced Sunday on Truth Social that the administration has developed a plan to redevelop the East Potomac Golf Links course in Washington, which has been at the center of a legal battle over his renovation plans.

Trump said the Interior Department worked with golf course architect Tom Fazio to develop “a plan to build a World Class Championship Golf Course on the site of the current East Potomac Golf Links, located in Washington, D.C.”

“When completed, it 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,” Trump said.

He said the renovations would begin on Nov. 15 and take about 15 months.

The proposed renovation, though, has already been challenged in court by a preservation group and two D.C. residents.

Following Trump’s Truth Social post, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered the administration to inform her whether it still plans to argue that there remains no “final agency action” and that Trump’s plan to rebuild the East Potomac Golf Course is purely “preliminary.”

The Justice Department responded in a filing Sunday night that there, indeed, is no final action and that the plans are preliminary. As such, the Justice Department argues, they are not something a federal judge could review.

“Just as a decision to redesign all the art exhibits in a Smithsonian Museum would not be agency action, neither would a decision to redesign a golf course, or to trim trees, replace fences, expand the fairways, or mow the lawn,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote.

Justice Department attorneys have long argued that any plans to turn East Potomac into a championship-style golf course were simply hypothetical and not rooted in any formal plan.

National Park Service officials also told Reyes last week that they were aware of no formal plan to renovate East Potomac beyond what they saw from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s and Trump’s previous social media posts.

Last week, Reyes forbade the administration to cut down more trees at the course through Oct. 26. The administration had cut down hundreds of trees, causing Reyes to hit back, saying she was “furious.”

Log sections cut from trees at East Potomac Golf Links on Monday.Mark Schiefelbein / Getty“I was hearing from everyone on plaintiffs’ side this was going to happen. I said repeatedly, ‘No, I trust the government.’ I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done,” she said at the time.

She also said the incident “cost the government all of its credibility.”

On Friday, the administration asked Reyes to recuse herself from the case, arguing that her “histrionics in prior hearings have clearly demonstrated she is no longer impartial.”

Reyes will hold a hearing Monday at which she has called on the acting director of the National Park Service and the Interior Department’s chief of staff to testify under oath. Reyes on Sunday also required Woodward to attend the hearing.

In Sunday’s Truth Social post, Trump said the “current Course is old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use or effect.”

The golf course renovation is the latest in a string of major changes Trump has tried to make to the D.C. landscape. He continues to build the White House ballroom and has pushed forward with plans to build a “triumphal arch.” His handpicked Kennedy Center board also voted to close the renowned arts center for renovations, and the administration moved to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; the lining ended up peeling.

ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMegan BrandMegan Brand is a politics reporter for NBC News.

Gary GrumbachGary Grumbach is an NBC News legal affairs reporter, based in Washington, D.C.