A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to turn Washington’s East Potomac Golf Links into a championship course, issuing a temporary order on Saturday night that requires the municipal course to stay open.
US District Judge Ana C. Reyes ruled that the overhaul was likely to breach environmental law and had sidestepped the procedural safeguards that govern executive action. She dismissed the Justice Department’s claim that the course had to close on Sunday for safety reasons as “pretextual”.
“The Government proposes to close a historic park, daily enjoyed by Washingtonians of all stripes, indefinitely,” Reyes wrote, finding that the closure would “irreparably harm” the golfers and preservationists who brought the case.
Trump, an avid golfer, first publicly proposed taking over and expanding the municipal course in May, and was soon afterwards seen touring the grounds with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Tom Fazio, the well-known golf designer who has worked on several of the president’s private courses. The president initially said work would begin on 1 September, a timetable that accelerated the legal challenge.
On Saturday, hours before the ruling, Trump continued to promote the project and posted photographs of what he has called “Trash Island”. “Unfortunately, Judge Ana Reyes doesn’t want us to quickly and inexpensively fix up the Course which is, also, very dangerous — The Fairways are far too close together,” he wrote in a social media post.
The ruling is the latest development in a months-long confrontation between Reyes and the administration, one that has prompted Trump to attack the judge on social media and Reyes to suggest that government lawyers may have misled her. The Justice Department has unsuccessfully tried to remove her from the case, which was brought by preservationists and golfers arguing that changing the course would breach federal environmental rules and diminish public access.
In October, Reyes issued a stark order blocking tree removal and imposing new notice requirements after more than 400 trees were removed from the course with minimal notice. “More than just being upset and furious right now, I am just beyond disappointed with the government,” she said at that hearing. The administration said the removals were necessary and unrelated to the renovation, a claim Reyes said she was “skeptical” of. “The question goes to whether or not I have been lied to, whether I have been lied to in declarations about the plans, whether I have been lied to about the timing of things,” she told Justice Department lawyers at the time.
The legal rationale for Saturday’s ruling turned on the National Park Service’s failure to take certain steps before the overhaul that Reyes found were required by law, such as giving the public notice of the plan and soliciting comment on it. “Notice-and-comment rulemaking is not impracticable merely because NPS wishes to accommodate President Trump and close the Park by November 15,” she wrote.
In a statement after the ruling, the Justice Department said it would “always vociferously defend the Trump Administration’s agenda in court.” A spokesperson told CNN that the court had acknowledged the National Park Service could limit access to its facilities where the public was at risk of harm, adding: “Nothing in the Court’s order precludes planning for the development of a world class golf course to continue.”
While the stakes surrounding the course are comparatively low when set against other legal battles engulfing the Trump administration, the case has become one of several in which the administration has bristled at complying with court orders. Other projects, including the president’s efforts to rename the Kennedy Center, build a triumphal arch on the banks of the Potomac and construct a ballroom, are also facing legal challenges.
This account rests on CNN’s report of the ruling, published on Saturday night; the court order itself has not yet been independently reviewed.
Sources: CNN — “Judge halts Trump plan to redevelop Washington, DC, golf course” (https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/14/politics/judge-east-potomac-park-golf-course-block)
