Trump says he will ask Jack Nicklaus to redesign golf courses at Joint Base Andrews
President Donald Trump unveils plan to revitalize golf courses at Joint Base Andrews. Calling the current courses “really bad” with “400-year-old grass,” Trump announced that legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus would design new “world championship” courses. This initiative will benefit young people and people with disabilities, by improving military installations.
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A Biden-appointed judge embroiled in a heated dispute with the Trump administration over the felling of hundreds of trees on a federally owned inverted golf course in Washington during Monday’s nearly seven-hour hearing.
Judge Ana Reyes ended the nearly seven-hour hearing by waiving her initial request that Justice Department attorneys defending the case put their names alongside the brief filed Sunday by Assistant Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr.. Reyes had invoked Rule 11, which requires attorneys to support the factual basis of documents filed with the court and can subject them to sanctions for violations.
“Breaking news,” Reyes said. “I will withdraw the request that DOJ refile yesterday’s filing with identification of who signed it. We all have better things to spend our time on.”
The about-face by Reyes, who hours before the hearing had been called “crazy crazy” by President Donald Trump on Truth Social, is the latest development in a court battle over Trump’s plans to completely renovate East Potomac Golf Links into a “world-class, U.S. Open-caliber course.” The lawsuit, which was first filed in February, reached a boiling point earlier this month when the National Park Service removed about 430 trees from the golf course over the course of a weekend. The Interior Department said the tree felling was part of a years-old plan to restore the historic design of the course and was not related to Trump’s proposed redesign.
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President Donald Trump and Judge Ana Reyes. (Getty/Reuters)
Although the action did not violate a court order, it prompted Reyes to impose a temporary restraining order prohibiting further tree cutting. She was also described as “yelling” at the administration’s lawyers during an October 12 hearing.
The hearing prompted Deputy Attorney General Stanley Woodward to call for Reyes’ removal from the case, accusing him of bias and “open hostility” toward the Trump administration.
Both Woodward and Trump requested the release of audio recordings of the court hearings.
“The judge in the case is a crazy lunatic who the courthouse tapes will reveal may be crazy? The tapes were blocked by the judge,” Trump said Monday hours before the hearing, saying the Trump administration had the “right” to turn the course into a “big, safe, prestigious” golf course. “Work should begin IMMEDIATELY! The finished product will be world class and bring revenue and great prestige to DC”
Trump posted two more tweets on Sunday, saying Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum and architect Tom Fazio had “developed a plan” to redevelop the East Potomac Golf Links into a “world-class championship golf course” and that work would begin on November 15.
The tweets prompted Reyes to give the Justice Department an 8 p.m. filing deadline, saying Trump’s characterization conflicted with a previous filing that said there was “no agency action” in Trump’s golf plan.
The filing was signed only by Woodward, which immediately became a point of contention at the start of Monday’s hearing.
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People play golf at the East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2026, with the Washington Monument visible in the background. (Pete Kiehart/The Washington Post)
Reyes demanded that the attorneys “raise their hands” if they signed the briefing, which Woodward said was “not an appropriate request.”
She then invoked rule 11 and ordered them to the podium to sign the file.
But Woodward and the lawyers refused. Reyes initially set a deadline of 3 p.m., but later extended it to noon Tuesday and proposed allowing attorneys’ names to appear on the brief rather than requiring their signatures. Eventually, she dropped her request altogether.
“For those wondering, a common reason why high-level DOJ appointees sometimes sign briefs comes down to good leadership,” Abhishek Kambli, a former federal prosecutor, wrote on “In itself, it goes without saying that a decision like this should not be investigated by a judge.”
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The DOJ says 649 settlement offers totaling approximately $175 million have been approved over the past three weeks for Camp Lejeune plaintiffs. (U.S. Department of Justice)
“DOJ lawyers are increasingly failing to sign briefs due to Democratic law tariffs. Democrats have and continue to attack the attorney licenses of junior DOJ lawyers who simply perform on behalf of the department,” Rachel Boulvard, vice president of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute, wrote on X.
Reyes, nominated by President Joe Biden in 2023, was previously the subject of a judicial misconduct complaint from the Justice Department over her handling of litigation challenging Trump’s restrictions on transgender people serving in the military.
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At a February 2025 hearing, Reyes asked a Trump administration lawyer about what Jesus Christ would say about policies excluding transgender people from homeless shelters.
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Chad Mizelle, then the DOJ’s chief of staff, accused Reyes of “egregious hostile misconduct” and potential bias in a formal complaint filed with the D.C. Circuit. The complaint was later dismissed, with the chief circuit judge finding that a motion for recusal was the appropriate avenue to challenge Reyes’ conduct.
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