A federal judge on Monday refused to order work stopped on East Potomac Golf Course, rejecting an emergency bid by preservation advocates who said the Trump administration was moving too quickly to remake the historic site.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes said she was not prepared to halt the work, but she made clear she wanted more answers before anything beyond routine maintenance goes forward. The D.C. Preservation League had asked for the emergency order to stop maintenance on the course after reporting last week said the administration had planned to close it as early as Sunday, with construction and tree clearing expected to begin by Monday.
The dispute centers on a golf course with views of the Washington Monument and the Potomac River, and on whether a new plan would run afoul of the 1897 congressional act that created East Potomac Park for the recreation and the pleasure of the people. The federal lawsuit, filed in February by the preservation league and two local golfers, says reconstruction of the course would violate that law. The Trump administration has said no formal renovation decisions have been made, while the National Park Service says only tree removal and routine maintenance are planned for now.
Reyes pressed the government on where the money and direction for the project are coming from. She said she wanted to know whether the White House or some third party is driving the fundraising, and asked to be told if more than 10 trees need to come down or if heavy machinery is going to be brought in. At one point, she said, “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that we’re not going to have a bulldozer knocking down trees,” and added, “If anything happens, there are going to be serious consequences. Closing one course isn’t maintenance.”
Kevin Griess told the court the plans were only to remove dead and dangerous trees and carry out regular maintenance. Reyes said, “I take Griess at his word that no renovation plans have been finalized,” but that was not the same as giving the administration a blank check to move ahead. The hearing left the case open and the underlying fight intact: whether a course at a public park can be transformed into what President Donald Trump described in January as “a beautiful, world-class, U.S. Open-caliber course.”
That broader argument has already become a political flashpoint in Washington, where opponents say East Potomac is public land meant for everyone, not a private-style destination. Skye Perryman said, “It’s a park that people and communities use and it’s heavily utilized. It is available to all people in the community, not just some people or people that you know can sort of afford to be on an exclusive list.” The judge’s refusal to stop work does not settle that clash. It means the administration can keep arguing that only upkeep is planned, while preservation groups keep pressing the harder question of how far maintenance can go before it becomes reconstruction.