Vol. II, No. 105 From Our Region to Yours
Politics

Trump Closes Public Golf Course for 15 Months to Make It More Accessible to Tournaments

The president says East Potomac Golf Links is old, broken and dilapidated, and will close Nov. 15 for about 15 months. A federal judge, a preservation group and several former trees have other views.

By 2 min read

Tall overgrown brush and weeds in the foreground at East Potomac Golf Links, with a mown fairway at left, a lone golfer in the distance and the Washington Monument rising above the trees under a gray sky.
East Potomac Golf Links, which the president describes as overgrown, and which is, in fairness, overgrown. Photo: ~delta / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

WASHINGTON BUREAU — The president has found a public golf course he does not care for. He has decided to fix it. The public will be allowed back in early 2028.

President Trump announced Sunday that East Potomac Golf Links will close for renovations on Nov. 15. The course sits about 2 miles south of the White House. It will be shut for roughly 15 months, he wrote on Truth Social.

He did not hold back on the current course. He called it “old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use or effect.” I have covered eleven administrations. I have been called all four of those things by at least six of them.

The new course, the post said, will be “designed to the Highest Level of Golf and able to hold World Class Tournaments.” He included a visual plan. The plan did not include the lawsuit.

There is a lawsuit. In February, a D.C. preservation group and two residents sued the Interior Department and the National Park Service. They argue a “championship-style golf course” would push up tee-time prices at a course meant to be “open to all people.”

The government’s lawyers see it differently. They argued the plaintiffs’ “desire for NPS to cater to their aesthetic and recreational preferences does not create a legally protected interest.” In fairness, nobody’s desire for an affordable Saturday morning has ever created a legally protected interest in this town.

The federal judge in the case, Ana C. Reyes, ordered the administration to stop cutting down trees at the park. On Friday, the government filed a motion to disqualify her for bias. “Judge Reyes’s behavior in this case is nothing short of egregious,” the motion said. The trees were not available for comment. Many of them are now logs.

The next hearing is scheduled for Monday. The closing date is Nov. 15. One of those two dates was chosen by a court.

Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs, said the park “is meant for everyone to enjoy.” She said her group will keep defending it. NPR asked Interior and the White House for comment. Neither had responded.

The course is part of a larger building program. The president has threatened the Kennedy Center and proposed a 250-foot arch near the National Mall. Washington is getting a makeover. Nobody asked Washington.

I called Deep Throat Lozenge for perspective. He plays East Potomac every Tuesday. He said he will miss it. He said he has seen the plan. He said the new greens fee has a comma in it.

I asked what he would do for 15 months. He said he would do what everyone in this city does. He would wait for the people in charge to finish, then find out what it costs.

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