by Ben Whedon
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a new hearing on President Donald Trump’s plan to convert a beloved public golf course into a world-class venue after he appeared to deny her stop-work order and say the project will start as scheduled.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered the new hearing after granting a preliminary injunction Monday requested by a preservationist group and group of local D.C. golfers asking her to stop the Trump administration from cutting down trees at the park as part of the redevelopment project.
The president’s apparent plan to go forward with the project in East Potomac Park came hours after Reyes’s ruling, when he posted on socia media: “We will immediately appeal this decision. When completed, it is anticipated that this Course, which will be open to the Public, at a reduced rate for those living in Washington, D.C., will be one of the finest anywhere in the World.”
Trump plans to start renovating Nov. 15. He has called Reyes’s rulings “unconstitutionl.” The next hearing will occur Friday or Monday, according to The Hill newspaper.
The hearing in which Reyes granted the injunction followed the National Park Service cutting down at least 430 healthy trees at the East Potomac Golf Links over the Columbus Day holiday weekend, without advanced notice.
“I am at a total loss to understand what has happened here other than … the government intended to do precisely what it has done,” which is delay informing the plaintiffs and the court of impending action so they could put a plan in place to raze hundreds of trees, Reyes told Justice Department lawyer Marissa Piropato.
According to CBS News, Reyes also said she was “beyond disappointed” in the federal government. “You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst,” Reyes said.
“I am at a total loss to understand what has happened here other than, Occam’s Razor time, that the government intended to do precisely what it has done,” she noted.
“There are American citizens who are deeply concerned with the actions of the government, and I have repeatedly, on the record, said ‘don’t be concerned. I trust the government,'” Reyes added.
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Ben Whedon is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “East Potomac Golf Course” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
