A federal judge in Washington on Monday issued a longer-term injunction blocking the Trump administration from removing or damaging additional trees on the grounds of the East Potomac Golf Links.
The order states that the administration must provide 10 business days’ written notice before making “any irreparable alteration to any form or feature of East Potomac Park” while the case continues.
In her order, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes cited certain posts by President Donald Trump on Truth Social that contradicted testimony from government employees.
“This began as a golf case. This beautiful ride was ruined. But it has become much more. It now requires the Court to reconcile the assertions of President Donald J. Trump with the sworn testimony of several government employees and the arguments of the Justice Department’s top lawyers,” Reyes wrote.
The order showed screenshots of messages from Truth Social, including one from Oct. 18 in which Trump said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, with an architect, had “developed a plan to build a world-class championship golf course” in East Potomac starting Nov. 15, even though Justice Department lawyers had earlier said there was no renovation plan.
In a follow-up post on October 19, Trump said work on the course would not begin on November 15, but “IMMEDIATELY!” » That message also stated that workers did not need approval for construction and called Reyes a “crazy lunatic.”
“Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court to disbelieve the sitting President,” Reyes wrote in his order Monday. “And yet here we are.”
Trump denounced the judge’s decision in a late-night article on Truth Social, arguing that she “has absolutely no right to delay this very important and magnificent project.” He said his administration would “immediately appeal” the decision and close the course on Nov. 15 for renovations.
“We believe that this plan is completely ‘by law’ and that the judge does not have a constitutional right to ‘request or receive notices,’ which is time-consuming, unnecessary, costly and unconstitutional,” Trump wrote.
Reyes said during a seven-hour hearing this month that she believed it was most likely necessary to extend her order suspending tree removal because she had already found that the government acted in “bad faith” when it abruptly cut down more than 400 trees on the course over the Columbus Day holiday weekend.
“The Court said earlier: ‘I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees.’ The Court still does not speak on behalf of the trees. This only speaks to the rule of law,” Reyes wrote Monday.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs in the case, welcomed Monday’s ruling in a statement.
“This is a major victory that will rightly protect East Potomac Park from further irreparable damage,” Perryman said. “We are grateful that the court intervened to put an end to the greed and lawlessness of the Trump-Vance combination while the case continues, and we look forward to litigating this case in court.”
Gn usa
