Judge leans toward extending halt to logging at Washington DC golf course, where Trump says redesign should begin ‘immediately’

WASHINGTON — The judge presiding over a court battle involving President Donald Trump’s plan to redo a golf course on federal land indicated Monday that she plans to extend her order blocking the administration from cutting down more trees at the site.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said during the seven-hour hearing that she thought it was likely necessary to extend her order because she had already concluded that the government acted in “bad faith” when it abruptly cut down more than 400 trees on the course over the Columbus Day holiday weekend.

She said she did not accept the administration’s arguments that the deforestation was unrelated to Trump’s renovation plan, which he said should begin “immediately.”

“I mean, there’s no universe where all of this happened by chance at the same time. It’s just not the case,” she said.

Justice Department lawyers argued that no renovation plans were in place — a position Trump undermined Sunday on social media when he said he was “happy to announce” the Interior Department and that “famous golf course architect Tom Fazio has developed a plan to build a world-class championship golf course on the site of what is now the East Potomac Golf Links, located in Washington, D.C..”

Trump, an avid golfer, said the renovation would begin “on November 15, when the old course is closed to play.”

He accelerated the timeline in a post Monday morning before the hearing, calling the lawsuit seeking to maintain the current course “ridiculous.”

“The experts from “Interior” are authorized to carry out this first-class renovation “as of right”. They don’t need approval. Work should begin IMMEDIATELY! » he wrote.

At the hearing, administration officials said they were not aware of any concrete renovation plans.

“There are no plans to close the course,” Deputy Attorney General Stanley Woodward told Reyes, calling Trump’s directive something he “would like” to do.

Acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron told Reyes that the first time she heard about the planned closure was at Trump’s post. “I have no information about the plan mentioned,” she testified.

Interior Department chief of staff Gregory Wischer, when questioned by the judge on the same question, also said he was “not aware” of any work scheduled to begin on November 15.

The plaintiffs, a preservation group and two Washington residents, say Trump’s plan would change the character of the 100-year-old site, which includes three courses aimed at varying skills. They said the Trump renovation would transform it into a unique championship-style course.

Trump told reporters Monday that the site is “old, tired, dilapidated, it’s useless. It doesn’t bring in a lot of business. We want to do something big for Washington. We’re basically going to build a better golf course. You can call it a renovation. It should be very simple. It’s something the Interior Department is authorized to do, absolutely. All they want to do is rehabilitate their property.”

Reyes cited Trump’s messages as potential evidence of government bad faith.

“We didn’t go from zero to ‘work should begin immediately’ in 60 seconds,” she said.

Trump called Reyes “crazy crazy” in his Monday morning message.

Reyes did not directly reference the insult, but she said at the end of the hearing that she had received messages from her brother and mother, who were “freaked out” after hearing a CNN report that she had received death threats — which often happens when Trump attacks a judge on social media.

“For a federal judge to receive death threats over a golf course — I really don’t think that’s what the founders envisioned,” Reyes said.

The Justice Department had argued in court papers over the weekend that Reyes, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, should recuse herself from the case because she was biased and had yelled at Justice Department lawyers during the last hearing. They argued that “her histrionic actions in previous hearings clearly demonstrated that she was no longer impartial.”

Reyes denied the request in an order Sunday. She admitted she had been “furious” with the administration for failing to keep promises to let her know well in advance if major work was underway on the route.

“So what happened? No sudden prejudices,” she wrote. “Instead, the government decided to remove more than 500 healthy, non-invasive trees from the East Potomac Golf Course. It waited until 4:55 p.m. on the Friday of a holiday weekend to notify that it would begin removing the trees within 15 hours. It removed nearly 430 trees in one day and would have destroyed hundreds more without a rain delay.”