A temporary fence is seen at East Potomac Park, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, in Washington.
Tom Brenner/AP
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Tom Brenner/AP
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Saturday ordered a two-week delay in any work on a historic Washington public golf course not far from the White House, blocking for now President Donald Trump’s efforts to redevelop the site along the Potomac River into a championship-level venue.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a temporary restraining order before the East Potomac Golf Links closed Sunday for 15 months. Trump had announced that work would begin that day despite a legal challenge launched against the project in February by the DC Preservation League and two local golfers.
The plaintiffs argue that Trump’s plan would change the accessible character of the golf course and make it unaffordable, something the Republican president denies. They had requested a halt to the work, saying closing the course and starting work on the project “would cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs and the public interest.”
The president’s public announcements on social media last month, specifying the closing date of East Potomac Park and linking it to the renovation of the golf course, weighed heavily in the decision. Trump said on October 26, “We are closing the East Potomac Golf Course site as scheduled on November 15 to renovate and rebuild for reasons of competitiveness (along with other such projects!), safety, modernization and aesthetics.” He added that the goal was to renovate and rebuild “a public World Championship facility.”
Reyes, in his ruling Saturday, noted that Trump’s messages presented a problem for the government. “They indicate that Washington’s National Plan is final and that the NPS will close the park to implement it,” she wrote. “Both points argue for granting plaintiffs’ motion for another temporary restraining order.”
Reyes said his order “AGAINST the government to close East Potomac Park and the East Potomac Golf Course during the daily hours they were open beginning November 14, 2026. It does not direct the government to undertake any active management of either.” Injunction.”
The judge said the order was in effect “until November 28, 2026 or until such other order of the court, whichever occurs first.”
The Justice Department said in a statement Saturday that the judge recognized that the National Park Service can limit access to its facilities where the public is at risk. “Nothing in the Court’s order prevents further planning for the development of a world-class golf course,” he said. “The Department of Justice will always vehemently defend the Trump Administration’s agenda in court.”
Catherine Carroll, senior legal counsel at Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs, welcomed the decision. “We are grateful that once again, a court has intervened to prevent irreparable harm caused by the Trump-Vance administration’s pursuit of yet another vanity project of the president,” she said. “The administration’s inexplicable desire to destroy East Potomac Park would have wiped out a valuable park that could never be replaced.”
The park redevelopment is one of several projects in the nation’s capital that Trump has championed to remake the city. They include, among others, a grand memorial arch, a White House ballroom and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Reyes had signaled during a five-hour court hearing Friday that she was likely to order a halt to the park’s closure. The only problem was how expensive it might be. Justice Department attorney Adam Gustafson argued that the entire East Potomac park, which includes three golf courses, a miniature course, bike paths and other recreational areas, was closed for safety reasons. He also noted that the lease between the government and the current operator, National Links Trust, was ending on Sunday.
Reyes emphasized that safety had not been part of the closure discussions for months and that ending the lease seemed more like an action that provided a premise for the closure rather than an action that led to the course being closed about 2 miles from the White House.
A temporary fence is seen at East Potomac Park, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, in Washington.
Tom Brenner/AP
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Tom Brenner/AP
Even before the order, Trump lashed out in a social media post Saturday, saying Reyes “doesn’t want us to quickly and cheaply repair the course, which is also very dangerous.” He said people who live in the Washington area would get a 50 percent discount on “all rates charged” and that the redevelopment would “turn into something very special, something the judge can be very proud to see!”
Reyes’ order was the latest in a series of rulings in lawsuits challenging Trump’s plans that were issued just hours before work was scheduled to begin. Another judge recently ordered a 14-day delay in work on the arch, a decision that came shortly after a key planning commission of Trump appointees approved plans for the project.
Reyes, who was appointed to the court by Democratic President Joe Biden, had been reluctant for months to approve the plaintiffs’ work stoppage requests. The plaintiffs had argued that the administration was continuing work on the project despite the ongoing lawsuit.
Its reluctance to issue orders ended in October, driven in part by a tree-cutting spree by the administration over a holiday weekend, with little notice to the judge or plaintiffs.
Government officials and lawyers said the tree work was part of a 2019 plan recommending the felling. In response, the judge confronted the administration over what she described as misleading actions about its intentions regarding the project.
Reyes has repeatedly expressed frustration with the minute planning details he has been asked to decide, including over the felled trees in the 106-year-old park. The Justice Department filed a request to have Reyes removed from the case because of what it called “egregious behavior” and questioned her impartiality. Reyes did not recuse herself.
The restraining order was one of two issues addressed by Reyes during Friday’s hearing.
She announced last week her intention to appoint Jessie Liu, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to review whether Interior Department and National Park Service officials and Justice Department lawyers violated ethics or misled her during the case.
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