Main: President Donald Trump holds scissors to cut the ribbon during the opening ceremony for Trump International Golf Links near Aberdeen, Scotland Tuesday, July 29, 2025 (AP Photo/Alastair Grant). Left inset: U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes pictured June 2022 during her confirmation hearings (Sen. Dick Durbin/YouTube).
A judge in Washington, D.C., who declined "about a dozen times" to make herself the "overseer of Parks and Rec" said on Monday that she "cannot turn a blind eye" to the mismatch between DOJ lawyers' "representations" and what President Donald Trump has openly posted about his plans for East Potomac Park Golf Links, and issued an injunction to block further action.
Shortly afterward, the president vowed to "immediately appeal," claiming that the golf course project is "totally 'as of right'" and "must begin, immediately, if it is to be completed in a timely and seasonal manner."
"To have to give advanced notices to a judge who has no expertise in Golf, Architecture, Landscaping, Construction, or anything else having to do with building such a World Class Project, is not fair, appropriate, or Constitutional," the president said, claiming that a "constant barrage of people being hit with wayward shots, and the echoing throughout the air of the word, 'FORE!'" suggests the "Course is extremely dangerous to play[.]"
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes started her order by saying that such social media posts support her finding that the so-called "Washington National Plan" is "final," no matter what the DOJ's attorneys tried to tell her in court.
"Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President. Not to believe him that a cabinet secretary has 'developed' a federal land project. Not to believe him that the secretary's agency will destroy a historic golf course already on the land," Reyes said. "Not to believe him that 'Restoration work' will begin 'IMMEDIATELY!' Not to believe him that the course 'will be closed' for over a year. Not to believe what the President has repeatedly told the American public."
"And yet, here we are," the judge added, blocking the defendants from "removing or damaging additional trees on East Potomac Golf Course" and ordering 10 business days' "written advance notice before making any irreparable modification to any forms or features of East Potomac Park, pending the outcome of this litigation."
Reyes, a Joe Biden appointee, said she is only acting now because the "Government did what it assured all it would not do" — namely, bulldozed "hundreds of trees" without any "urgency" — and "[w]ithout meaningful notice" to her or the D.C. Preservation League plaintiff on a holiday weekend.
After the judge took DOJ lawyers to task, scolding them for doing their "absolute worst," the government moved to disqualify her. Reyes quickly rejected the motion and held another hearing, demanding answers from the DOJ's No. 3 official, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward.
Woodward represented that the mass tree removal was not "final agency action," but rather tree management to ensure compliance with a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report.
The judge didn't believe Woodward's account that the tree removal was unconnected to the Washington National Plan, and it doesn't appear DOJ lawyers are out of the woods yet. Reyes ordered the DOJ to explain why she shouldn't order lawyers and staff to preserve records:
The Government appears to have set the timing of the tree removal and late notice to impede Plaintiffs' ability to seek Court intervention. And its recent actions call into question other representations it has made to the Court over these many months. The Court cannot turn a blind eye. But neither will it rush to judgment.
To start, the Court ORDERS the Government to show cause by 10:00 a.m., October 28, 2026, as to why the Court should not order it—including relevant DOJ attorneys and staff—to preserve information relevant to the existence of the Washington National Plan, the timing of the tree removal, and the notification of tree removal to Plaintiffs and the Court.
In deciding that the Washington National Plan "likely" is "final," the judge said the president's numerous public posts and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's "silence" spoke "volumes."
"If, as DOJ insists, President Trump is wrong, Secretary Burgum can just say so. He has not. That said, at this juncture Plaintiffs carry the burden of showing a final plan likely exists. They have done so. This is confirmed not just by the President's and Secretary's many posts, but also by the Government's actions, not the least of which is the removal of hundreds of healthy, non-invasive trees on no real notice," Reyes stated.
"The Government belittles the evidence, chiding that Plaintiffs 'proffer only conjecture based on a handful of tweets.' Not so. The 'handful of tweets' are not complaints about the Red Sox's latest blown lead in the ninth," the judge wrote, adding a footnote that said only "Sigh," perhaps acknowledging that the Milwaukee Brewers are on the cusp of winning the World Series while the Boston Red Sox sit at home.
"Any other result would permit the agency to destroy a century-old Course with no possibility of pre-destruction judicial review," Reyes said, not interested in presiding over a "fait accompli."
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