Lawyers for the DC Preservation League asked a federal court on Sunday afternoon to stop the Trump administration from taking over East Potomac Golf Links after Sunday, moving to block a plan that would shut down Washington’s largest public golf course and put renovations in motion.
The emergency stay is being heard in the District Court for the District of Columbia, after late-Friday reporting said the National Park Service would close the course and begin work tied to Tom Fazio, one of Trump’s preferred architects. Skye Perryman said the administration “appears to be moving forward aggressively to shut down DC’s largest public golf course to explore another of the president’s pet projects to benefit himself,” and said the group was asking the court “to act urgently to save this important part of our national park system from being another casualty of a reckless administration.”
The clash has been building for months. The National Links Trust signed a 50-year lease with the National Park Service in 2020 to manage East Potomac and two other public courses in the city, Rock Creek and Langston. But the Department of the Interior filed a notice of termination on Dec. 31, and the DC Preservation League and two area residents followed with an injunction in February to try to stop the administration from moving ahead.
That lawsuit came after truckloads of dirt and debris from the White House East Wing ballroom demolition project were dumped onto the East Potomac grounds without explanation, adding a new layer to a dispute that already touched on one of the city’s most visible public spaces. Rebecca Miller said East Potomac Golf Links is “a unique cultural landscape that reflects the history of recreation in the nation’s capital,” adding that altering its historic character would undermine a site meant to be accessible to the public.
East Potomac’s setting gives the fight extra weight. The course has sight lines to the Washington Monument on almost every hole, making it as much a part of the city’s landscape as of its recreation system. If the stay is not granted, the reported takeover is expected to move forward after Sunday, leaving the court to decide whether the administration can press ahead before the wider merits of the case are resolved.
Perryman said the plaintiffs were honored by the partnership in fighting back against what she called an unlawful assault on public spaces, and she said they were eager to argue the case. For now, the question is whether the court will freeze a federal move that could alter a public course tied to the city’s history, its skyline and a lease agreement still being contested in court.