A federal judge in Washington issued a longer-term injunction on Monday, effectively blocking the Trump administration from removing or damaging additional trees at East Potomac Golf Links. The ruling comes after a series of high-profile legal clashes regarding the future of the historic park and the credibility of government testimony regarding renovation plans.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered the administration to provide written notice at least 10 business days before making any “irreparable modification to any forms or features of East Potomac Park” while the underlying case proceeds. The decision extends a previous temporary pause on work at the site, which has been at the center of a dispute involving the Department of Justice, the National Park Service, and the President of the United States.
In her written order, Judge Reyes highlighted a stark disconnect between public statements made by President Donald Trump and the official arguments presented by his legal team. The judge specifically pointed to screenshots of Truth Social posts as a primary reason for the extended injunction. On October 18, Trump posted that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and an unnamed architect had “developed a plan to build a World Class Championship Golf Course” at the site with a start date of November 15. This claim directly contradicted earlier assertions from Department of Justice attorneys, who had told the court that no such renovation plan existed.
In a subsequent post on October 19, Trump shifted the timeline, stating that work on the course would begin not on November 15 but “IMMEDIATELY!” In the same post, he claimed workers did not require official approval for construction and characterized Judge Reyes as a “crazed lunatic.”
“Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President,” Reyes wrote in the Monday order. “And yet, here we are.”
The court’s skepticism regarding the government’s intentions follows a contentious Columbus Day holiday weekend in which crews abruptly cut down more than 400 trees at the course. During a seven-hour hearing earlier this month, the judge noted that she found the government had acted in “bad faith” during that incident, which occurred despite ongoing legal scrutiny. At that time, golfers were forced to navigate fairways littered with log sections from the newly felled trees.
“The Court earlier stated, ‘I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees.’ The Court still does not speak for the trees. It speaks only for the rule of law,” Reyes wrote in her Monday ruling. The judge’s order suggests that the lack of internal consistency within the administration’s communications made it impossible for the court to rely solely on the government’s verbal or written assurances that no further permanent damage would occur without notice.
Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, who represents the plaintiffs in the case, described the ruling as a significant victory for the protection of public lands. Perryman stated that the intervention was necessary to stop what she described as “greed and lawlessness” while the merits of the case are argued in court.
The injunction ensures that the current landscape of East Potomac Park, which is managed as part of the National Park system, remains largely preserved until the court can reconcile the President’s public directives with the sworn testimony of government employees and the official positions of the Department of Justice.
