Trump’s Dc Golf Course Plan Revealed

The National Park Service disclosed plans Tuesday to cut down more trees as it carries out President Donald Trump's planned renovation of a public golf course in the nation’s capital.

In a design plan submitted at federal court, the Justice Department shared NPS' proposal to overhaul its golf course on a peninsula in East Potomac Park near the Jefferson Memorial. The design calls for thinning trees and vegetation to create open vistas comparable to when the park opened a century ago.

The plan follows several weeks of often-caustic back and forth between Judge Ana Reyes of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and DOJ lawyers over whether the park service's sudden removal of 400 trees from the course in October was part of routine maintenance and unrelated to the president’s planned overhaul, as the administration asserted.

The president, who owns 15 high-end golf courses around the world, wants the historic course turned into a championship level course. A D.C. preservation group and local golfers have sued to stop the renovation.

The plan released Tuesday appears to corroborate Trump’s desire to return the course to its earlier, more open design.

The design delivered to the court calls for “thinning” trees and vegetation that were planted in the decades following the course’s 1920 opening to “reopen views” of the Potomac River and nearby monuments. Images show the course in the 1920s almost completely denuded of trees except along the waterfront.

It quotes extensively from Trump’s social media posts to defend significant changes to the course, which the president described as “absolutely disgusting” and “a national disgrace.”

Much of the proposal is composed of photos and documentation of damage like rotten beams in the clubhouse, boarded up windows, potholes along the roads and an ailing seawall that allows flooding multiple times a day.

The redesign will be done by Tom Fazio, a renowned golf course architect, the plan notes.

DOJ lawyers have also sparred with Reyes about Fazio’s involvement. On Monday they told the judge that the White House had confirmed that no contract exists between Fazio and the administration for redevelopment of the golf course.

The legal fight, part of Trump’s larger quest to remake Washington, has often centered on the inconsistencies between Trump’s public statements about the course and his lawyers' statements in court. Reyes on Friday opened an investigation into whether Trump officials repeatedly deceived her over the president’s plans to close and redevelop the course.

The president announced on social media that the course would close for redevelopment on Nov. 15, even as his administration told the judge no closure was imminent. Trump also defended the tree cutting on social media as aligning the park with the original design.

The administration has previously sought to remove Reyes from the case, alleging bias. Reyes, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, denied the charge, saying her exasperation stemmed from being misled.

Until last year, the course was one of three public golf courses being redeveloped by the nonprofit National Links Trust. The Trump administration broke that organization’s 50-year lease last year after the president became interested in overhauling the East Potomac course.

NPS told the court last month that it had signed a new lease for for the nonprofit trust to relinquish management of East Potomac, while continuing to run the other two NPS courses in Washington.

The concept plan submitted to the court Tuesday will go to the National Capital Planning Commission for review at its December meeting.

It could also go to the Fine Arts Commission as soon as this month, according to the plan.

Both review panels are helmed by Trump appointees who have previously given partial or full approval to his projects in the nation’s capital, including a proposed triumphal arch and a ballroom being built on the site of the demolished White House East Wing.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.