'Furious' judge extends order to bar Trump admin from cutting trees at DC golf course

Tue, October 13, 2026 at 7:07 PM UTC

107

A federal judge on Tuesday extended her order barring the Trump administration from carrying out any further tree removals at Washington's East Potomac Golf Course until at least Oct. 26, court records show.

D.C. District Judge Ana Reyes erupted at Trump administration attorneys on Monday after they told her that more than 400 trees had been felled at the Washington D.C. public course that President Donald Trump wants to turn into one that can host professional tournaments.

The attorneys had previously pledged to provide notice to plaintiffs in the case about any irrevocable harm that would occur at the golf course through government actions.

Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo - PHOTO: A golfer walks past the stump of a large tree at the East Potomac Golf Links, Oct. 12, 2026, in Washington.

"More than just being upset and furious right now, I am just beyond disappointed in the government. I have done everything humanly possible to give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case. I have done it repeatedly. I have done it for months," Reyes vented Monday after attorneys for the government told her how many trees had been cut down.

Judge warns of 'serious consequences' if administration begins work at East Potomac Golf Course

The golf course has been the subject of litigation brought by the D.C. Preservation League in response to President Donald Trump's efforts to turn it into a course that could host professional tournaments.

Reyes is expected to grill Interior Department official Gregory Wischer, a political appointee who has been a point person on many of Trump's major D.C. beautification projects, and acting director of the National Park Service Jessica Bowron in next Monday's hearing.

She also ordered written briefs from both the D.C. Preservation League, which is suing the government to stop the project, and the government over whether she should grant a more extensive preliminary injunction that would block the administration from making further renovations to the course as litigation plays out.

Reyes repeatedly pressed for answers in Monday's hourslong hearing on who within the Trump administration had ordered the removal of the trees.

"I am just at a total loss to understand what has happened here ... that the government precisely intended to do precisely what it has done, which is intentionally delaying letting the plaintiffs in the court know what was happening, so they could put a plan in place to clear hundreds and hundreds of trees."

Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters - PHOTO: Workers cut down a tree at East Potomac Golf Links golf course in Washington, October 10, 2026.

The government provided notice to the plaintiffs at 4:55 p.m. last Friday that tree-cutting would occur at the golf course over the Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day holiday weekend.

The National Park Service began cutting down trees on Saturday and the D.C. Preservation League filed for a temporary restraining order on Sunday.

Advertisement

Trump says work will begin on DC golf course despite judge's warning

Marissa Ann Piropato, a Justice Department attorney admitted to the court in Monday's hearing that 430 trees were cleared over weekend.

Reyes exploded, "430 trees!"

"I had said at the May hearing that I didn't want 10 trees chopped down without someone having notice," Reyes said. "On what universe did anyone in your office think that that was acceptable?"

"Your Honor, we did our best in providing notice," Piropato said.

"You did not do your best!  You did your absolute worst!," Reyes interrupted.

The government testified that the plan to cut down trees was part of a plan put in place in 2019 to remove dead, dying and hazardous trees around the golf course.

"No one else can say what the basis of the urgency was and when this idea was first identified, because we are talking now with potential multiple misrepresentation to the court and the only reason -- the only reason I have not yet entered a show cause on contempt is that I never put this in a formal order," Reyes said. "Which, believe you now, I am regretting."

Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo - PHOTO: President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum tour the East Potomac Park golf course, June 28, 2026, in Washington.

Reyes says she wants clarity on who specifically gave the orders to remove the trees on Saturday and whether it was a deliberate effort to evade her previous orders issued in the case as litigation remains ongoing.

"The questions go to whether or not I've been lied to," Reyes said during Monday's hearing. "Whether I've been lied to in declarations about the plans, whether or not I've been lied to about the timing of things ... I am beyond disappointed in the government right now. I wanted you all to be better than you have been."

Reyes had warned Justice Department lawyers of "serious consequences" if the administration began major work at the course without getting approval and notifying the court in advance.

"I'm going to say this one more time, and I do not want a situation where something has happened and then I'm being told by the government or by a foundation or by a bulldozing company that it's too late to do anything about it," she said. "If anything like that happens ... there are going to be serious consequences."

Trump promises the course, which he said will be renovated and redesigned through a public-private partnership, will be "one of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World" on the site and said it will be open to the public.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Breaking”