President Trump announced Friday that East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C. will close next month so restoration work can begin on a brand-new championship course. This is the same course that a Biden-appointed federal judge has been trying to stop Trump from touching, so naturally, Trump just announced it to the entire world.
In a lengthy statement, Trump laid out the full plan. The Department of the Interior, led by Secretary Doug Burgum, is working with legendary golf course architect Tom Fazio to build what Trump called a “World Class Championship Golf Course” on the site of the current dilapidated East Potomac layout. Trump wrote that the course will be “open to the Public” while also being “designed to the Highest Level of Golf and able to hold World Class Tournaments such as the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup, and the Presidents Cup.”
He didn’t sugarcoat the condition of the existing course either. Trump described it as “old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use or effect,” with “falling, dangerous, and disease infested trees” and “a collapsing and hazardous seawall.” He also noted the course will close to play on November 15th, with the new layout expected to open in approximately 15 months. The USGA, PGA of America, and PGA Tour have already been notified, per Trump’s East Potomac golf course announcement.
Now here’s where it gets fun. Legal analyst Bill Shipley, known online as Shipwreckedcrew, thinks there’s a very calculated reason Trump made this announcement so publicly. “He’s goading Judge Reyes into issuing a Prelim. Injunction, which will then be appealable to the D.C. Circuit, where she’ll almost certainly be reversed after the Ballroom fiasco that led to a SCOTUS reversal,” Shipley wrote on social media.
In other words, Trump may be handing Judge Reyes the rope and waiting to see if she ties herself up with it. Earlier this week, Judge Reyes was reportedly furious that Trump had trees cut down on the course without giving her enough notice. Well, she’s got her notice now, in the form of a presidential announcement broadcast to the entire country. Hard to say you didn’t see it coming.
If Reyes issues a preliminary injunction to block the closure, the case heads to the D.C. Circuit, where her track record hasn’t exactly been sparkling lately. A previous ruling of hers already got slapped down by the Supreme Court. So the judge who wanted more notice before Trump touched the golf course may now have to decide whether to pick another fight she’s likely to lose.
Restoration work is set to begin November 15th. If Judge Reyes tries to stop it, the next stop could be an appeals court, and then maybe the Supreme Court again, which didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat for her last time around.
