At a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on September 17, 2026, ranking member Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) disclosed that the National Park Service had signed a contract to begin work on Trump's planned redevelopment of East Potomac Golf Links, without a public announcement and without notice to Congress.
The course is a public municipal course on federal parkland about two miles from the White House. Trump does not own it. East Potomac Park was created by an act of Congress in 1897 “for the recreation and the pleasure of the people,” and the course opened in 1919. A pending lawsuit argues the redevelopment violates that founding act.
The design contract is verifiable in the federal award record: $389,355.43 to Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., awarded by the Department of the Interior for “A-E DESIGN SUPPORT SERVICES FOR COMPLIANCE REHABILITATE EAST POTOMAC PARK GOLF COURSE, WASHINGTON D.C.,” with a start date of September 10, 2026.
CNN separately reviewed a Park Service advance notice of solicitation putting the preliminary construction cost at between $20 million and $49 million, with bidding to open January 31, 2027. That is a preliminary range on an advance notice, not an awarded construction contract and not an appropriation. The Interior Department disputes the framing: a spokesperson said “The full course design is yet to be finalized, so any type of cost estimate speculation over an advance notice of solicitation is premature and irresponsible, especially from a Member of Congress.”
Trump proposed taking the course over in May 2026 after touring it, calling it “dilapidated, worn out, and very dangerous and outdated” and promising “one of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World.” In June he wrote that “When completed, this Course will have the ability to host Major Golf Tournaments, including The U.S. Open, The Ryder Cup, The PGA Championship, and other top PGA Tour events.”
Huffman's objection is about ownership of public space. “Now, this is not just any old golf course. This is a beloved public space with huge historic significance,” he said, arguing Trump is “systematically moving to take this historic, publicly accessible resource and turn it into another gilded private golf club for the mega-rich” in what he called “a methodical, deliberate effort to take a public park away from the people.” He added, “We're not going to let Donald Trump walk off with our public lands. That park belongs to the American people, and I'm not willing to sit here and watch him simply steal it.”
Huffman, Reps. Jamie Raskin, Glenn Ivey and Don Beyer and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton wrote to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting Park Service director Jessica Bowron demanding all documents on the project by September 30. Their letter said, “East Potomac Park does not belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to the American people, and it has for more than a century.”
About 150 trees have already been cut at the site, and a federal judge declined to intervene. The same park holds the debris from the demolished White House East Wing, a three-story mound the Park Service has said tested positive for lead, chromium and other toxic metals (see 30,000 Cubic Yards of East Wing Demolition Debris Were Dumped at a Public DC Golf Course; National Park Service Soil Tests Found Lead, Chromium, and Other Toxic Metals).
This is not self-dealing in the ordinary sense, since Trump would not own the course. What is at stake is the conversion of public parkland and federal money to a project he wants.
Update (October 12, 2026): at 4:55 p.m. on Friday, October 9, before the holiday weekend, the government notified the court in DC Preservation League v. Department of the Interior that it would begin removing trees; the Park Service superintendent's declaration said “up to 529” trees would be removed. Crews began the next morning. At an emergency hearing, a government lawyer acknowledged at least 430 had been cut, Golf Digest reported. Judge Ana Reyes said, “I trusted you all NOT to do precisely what you have done,” and, “No you did not do your best. You did your absolute worst,” and ordered all tree removal stopped until 7 a.m. on October 13.
Update (October 19, 2026): Judge Reyes's order, through October 26, bars the government from felling any more trees and requires three business days' written notice before any irreparable change to the site; it does not bar construction. On October 18 Trump posted, “Restoration work will begin on the Fazio Design on November 15th.” The next morning he called Reyes “a crazed lunatic” and wrote, “They do not need an approval. Work is scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY!” CNN reported. No work in violation of the order has been reported. On October 18 Reyes denied the Justice Department's motion to disqualify her, writing, “It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion,” and the government told the court there is “no final agency action” to review.
Update (October 20, 2026): at the October 19 hearing, Judge Reyes said, “There is no universe in which all of this just coincidentally happens at the same time,” and Interior official Greg Wischer said he was “not aware” of a plan to begin construction on November 15, the Washington Examiner reported. NPR reported that Trump's posts contradict a government filing that “the plan is not final.” Reyes ordered the Justice Department to identify who signed its latest brief, then withdrew that order after a break. She took the request for an injunction under advisement; the order against further tree removal stands through October 26.
Update (October 22, 2026): at the close of the October 19 hearing, Judge Reyes said from the bench, “A federal judge is getting death threats over a golf course,” and, “I really don't think that's what the founders envisioned,” the AP reported; she referred to news reports of the threats rather than to specifics, according to Lawfare's hearing notes.
Update (October 27, 2026): On October 26 Judge Ana Reyes granted the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, which applies while the case proceeds. The order bars the government from cutting, removing or otherwise damaging any tree in East Potomac Park without a court order, except to address an imminent threat to public safety, and requires “no less than ten business days' written advance notice” before any closure of the course, other than a regularly scheduled one, and before any irreversible change to the park. Each notice must name who authorized the action and say whether it is connected with “the Washington National Plan or any Fazio design.” The order does not bar the renovation itself.
The government must show cause by 10 a.m. on October 28 why it should not be ordered to preserve information on the plan's existence, the timing of the tree removal and the notice given of it. In a 70-page opinion, Reyes found that the plan, which she defined as “a plan to destroy the current East Potomac Golf Course and to replace it with a modern, championship-style course designed by Tom Fazio,” exists, and that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that the Interior Department violated the National Environmental Policy Act by “impermissibly segmenting its review of the Plan's environmental effects.”
She called the government's maintenance rationale for the tree removal pretextual and wrote, “The Court does not find Wischer credible,” referring to Gregory Wischer, the Interior secretary's deputy chief of staff. The opinion opens, “Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President.” That night Trump posted that the course would close “as scheduled on November 15th,” that the judge has no constitutional right to “ask for or receive notices,” and, “We will immediately appeal this decision.” No appeal had been reported when this was written.
Update (October 31, 2026): at an October 30 hearing, the third in three weeks, Judge Reyes said she would “open a formal inquiry into whether agency officials and employees, including agency attorneys and [Justice Department] attorneys, have made misrepresentations to the court and otherwise violated applicable ethical rules,” NPR reported. It may be led by a special master with “full investigatory powers,” not yet appointed; if the government rejects the special master, she said, she will conduct the inquiry herself. She ordered officials to preserve all relevant documents so the “court can conduct an inquiry without the loss of evidence.” Reyes stressed that opening the inquiry does not mean the court has found, or will find, that any government lawyer violated professional obligations. The AP also reported the inquiry.
The trigger was a Justice Department filing on the night of October 28. For months its lawyers had told the court the plan was not final. The filing said the Park Service would submit to the National Capital Planning Commission “a rendering designed by Tom Fazio for a World Class, championship-level golf course that is capable of hosting major events,” and would “close East Potomac Park south of Buckeye Drive, including the Golf Course, consistent with the President's directive.” Under a new lease, the National Links Trust will cease operating the course “as of close of business on or before November 15.” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. told the court the submission had been in the works for several weeks.
Reyes opened by quoting the D.C. Bar rule against false statements to a court and later said, “For months, the court trusted, but did not verify. No longer.” When Woodward described Trump's Truth Social posts as a matter of executive privilege, she said, “He posted it!” The government says the wider park closure is also needed to repair a crumbling seawall, which Woodward said would cost between $150 million and $400 million. The government has appealed the October 26 injunction, NPR reported.