In a significant judicial ruling issued over the weekend, US District Judge Ana Reyes has imposed a temporary restraining order barring the federal government from shutting down the century-old East Potomac Golf Links and adjacent public park in Washington DC, halting the Trump administration’s contentious 15-month redevelopment timeline set to kick off on November 15. The high-stakes legal battle, first launched in February by the DC Preservation League and local community stakeholders, has stretched on for months amid mounting friction between the executive branch and the federal judiciary over the use of protected national parkland. The 106-year-old public course, located just 3 kilometers south of the White House and operated by the National Park Service as one of DC’s three public municipal golf facilities, drew sharp public criticism after the administration moved to fell hundreds of mature trees on the site earlier this fall, notifying the court of the tree removal plan a mere 15 hours before work was scheduled to commence. Following the unauthorized tree clearing, Judge Reyes issued an initial interim order pausing all permanent alterations to the property through late October, and mandated that the administration provide three full business days of advance notice before implementing any further irreversible changes to the public land. Undeterred by the ongoing litigation, former President and avid golfer Donald Trump publicly derided the existing course as “Trash Island” on his Truth Social platform, claiming the dilapidated facility featured diseased, dangerous falling trees and a collapsing hazardous seawall that posed public safety risks. He framed the $200 million redevelopment project as a transformative upgrade that would create one of the world’s most elite tournament-caliber public golf courses, accessible to all local residents while attracting international professional golf events. In her 30-page ruling, Judge Reyes dismissed the administration’s stated justifications for the immediate full closure of the park as pretextual, finding that federal agencies had violated at least two separate federal land protection statutes to meet an arbitrary, self-imposed project deadline. She emphasized that the proposed indefinite closure of a public green space regularly enjoyed by cross-section of Washington DC residents directly contradicts the core public interest mandate of national park management, and that the government had failed to demonstrate any tangible harm that would result from preserving the site’s current operating status while litigation proceeds. The temporary restraining order remains in effect through November 28. In a parallel procedural step, Judge Reyes has also launched a formal ethics investigation into Department of Justice attorneys representing the administration, to assess whether legal counsel submitted misrepresentations to the court, withheld critical case information, or acted in bad faith when providing last-minute notice of the tree removal operations. The inquiry will be conducted in partnership with an independent court-appointed special master to ensure impartiality. The BBC has reached out to the White House for an official statement on the ruling and the ongoing ethics review, but no response has been issued as of press time.
Judge temporarily blocks Trump from closing Washington DC golf course for renovation
