A federal judge was apparently scrolling social media Sunday and wasn’t particularly happy with President Trump’s post on Truth Social announcing major renovations will begin next month at the District’s East Potomac golf course.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes issued an order Sunday demanding Justice Department lawyers tell the court if they continue to take the position, stated in an Oct. 16 filing, that Mr. Trump had only given “preliminary thought” to the plan to rebuild the golf course, and that “there is no final agency action.”
Judge Reyes ordered government lawyers to attend an in-person hearing on Monday.
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The court, Judge Reyes wrote, “takes judicial notice of President Donald J. Trump’s 10:09 a.m. Truth Social post,” announcing the commencement of the golf course renovations.
The judge’s orders came a few hours after Mr. Trump’s post. He told followers the East Potomac Golf Links south of the National Mall will undergo a complete overhaul beginning Nov. 15, and the upgrades will take 15 months to complete.
The public course opened in 1920.
Mr. Trump posted a design of the revamped golf course Sunday morning on social media, boasting that the overhaul will produce “a World Class Championship Golf Course” designed to host the U.S. Open and other major tournaments.
The image appeared to expand the length of the course slightly and reshuffled the location of the 18 holes from a version Interior Secretary Doug Burgum released in May.
Judge Reyes is overseeing a court battle over the renovations.
The D.C. Preservation League and residents, represented by the left-wing advocacy group Democracy Forward, sued to block the renovations. They say the president wants to convert the public course “into an exclusive, high-end golf course” and will damage the environment.
Earlier this month, she ordered a halt to tree-cutting at the golf course until Oct. 26.
The Department of Justice responded by asking Judge Reyes to recuse herself, pointing to her behavior in court. She yelled at department lawyers and demanded senior officials appear and testify as to whether President Trump prodded them to cut down trees so he could rebuild the golf course.
Mr. Trump’s lengthy Sunday post about the project said the current course is “old, broke, dilapidated and of no further use or effect.”
The trees were “falling, dangerous and disease infested,” he said.
The course, when it opened more than a century ago, “was famous for no trees, with views of Washington D.C. for all to see, but now it is completely overgrown dysfunctional and unsafe,” the president added.
Fazio Design is leading the overhaul of the golf course. The company has designed more than 200 courses, 46 of which Golf Digest lists among the top courses in the U.S.
Mr. Trump said he has alerted the PGA and other golf officials about the course so that they can plan major tournaments at the site when it opens.
“This Course will create many Jobs, and have a tremendously positive Economic Development impact on Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. Millions of Dollars will inure to the Capital area,” he said.
It will remain a public golf course when it reopens, he added.
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