A federal judge extended an order that blocks President Donald Trump’s administration from cutting down any more trees at a Washington, D.C., municipal golf course he seeks to renovate.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a 70-page opinion on Monday preventing further work at the century-old East Potomac Golf Club, where 400-plus trees were recently removed as part of efforts to convert the public course into a championship venue.
Reyes scoffed at the administration’s claim that the tree removals were not part of the course overhaul planned by Trump, despite the president’s own statements about his project.
“Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President,” she wrote. “Not to believe what the President has repeatedly told the American public. And yet, here we are.”
Hours after Reyes released her opinion, Trump said the course will close on Nov. 15 as scheduled and that the administration is planning to file an appeal.
“We believe this Project is totally ‘as of right,’ and that the judge does not have the Constitutional Right to ‘ask for or receive notices,’ which are time-consuming, unnecessary, expensive, and unconstitutional,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
He also criticized Reyes as “a judge who has no expertise in Golf, Architecture, Landscaping, Construction, or anything else having to do with building such a World Class Project.”
Reyes’ preliminary injunction to stop further tree removal is the latest ruling in a lawsuit filed in February by the DC Preservation League and two local golfers who play the course.
“This is a big win that will rightly protect East Potomac Park from further irreparable harm,” Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perriman said, per WUSA9. “We are grateful the court intervened to stop the Trump-Vance administration’s greed and lawlessness while the case continues, and we are eager to argue the case in court.”