East Potomac Golf Course Being Demolished as Trump Remakes DC

On a sunny autumnal Saturday afternoon in Washington’s East Potomac Park, an elderly man sat on the porch of the East Potomac Golf Links clubhouse and gazed out at the course. Nearby, an extended family gathered for a reunion. A young couple set out a blanket for a picnic. And a father taught his daughter how to hold a club that was nearly as tall as she is.

"I've been sneaking onto this course since I was a kid," he told me with a twinkle in his eye. "I want to see if I can do it one last time before it's gone."

Two years ago, the idea that the East Potomac Golf Links might be closed, or simply closed to the public, was unfathomable. The golf course, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is protected as part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks. It is as iconic as the Washington Monument, the Reflecting Pool, or the White House.

Two weeks ago, the Trump administration bulldozed its way through it. 

The destruction came in spite of a court order directing the administration to halt its plans, conflicting reports from the administration, congressional pushback, and public outrage. The move is part of President Donald Trump's broader plan to redevelop East Potomac Golf Links, one of three National Park Service golf courses within the District of Columbia protected as cultural and historical resources and long used as models for public courses across the country. 

"The president seems to believe that Washington, DC, is his personal portfolio—from what happened at the East Wing [of the White House], moving forward," Rebecca Miller, the executive director of the DC Preservation League, told Sierra. "I don't believe it's falling on deaf ears that what he is doing is illegal and immoral, but he doesn't care. And he's going to push it to see how far he can go."

East Potomac Park and West Potomac Park form a connected area in Washington, DC, managed by the National Park Service as part of National Mall and Memorial Parks. The course includes an 18-hole course, a nine-hole White Course, a nine-hole Red Course, and a putting green. A miniature golf course, built in 1931, is the oldest continuously operated miniature golf course in the United States. In 1897, Congress declared the area "to be forever held and used as a park for the recreation and pleasure of the people."

The golf course is part of a multi-recreation area that includes walking and cycling trails, birdwatching areas, and more. East Potomac Golf Links is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the government's other two local courses: Langston Golf Course & Driving Range and Rock Creek Park Golf. A National Park Service cultural landscapes inventory report issued in 2023 found that "Many of the park’s features associated with land use, topography, vegetation, spatial organization, circulation, views and vistas, and buildings and structures from the period of significance (1882–1969) are retained."

Beginning in October 2025, the Trump administration regularly dumped debris from the White House renovation onto the East Potomac golf course. That debris later tested positive for lead, chromium, and other toxic metals, according to the National Park Service.

In January, the administration terminated the 50-year contract with the National Links Trust, the nonprofit contracted during Trump's first term to manage the three courses, alleging lease defaults and unpaid rent. The trust vehemently denies the claim and continues to operate the three courses while the renovation is underway.

The following month, after months of ongoing dumping, the DC Preservation League and two local golfers filed a lawsuit against the US Department of the Interior. The suit challenged the dumping at East Potomac Park as part of an effort to convert the public recreation space into a private course. The lawsuit was amended in September.

"In the center of the heart of our nation's capital, we don't have a private golf course that's exclusive to the rich, the wealthy, and corporate events," Ed Stierli, the vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, told Sierra.  "We have a golf course that is open and accessible to anyone, and actually was one of the first golf courses in history to integrate and make sure it was truly open and accessible to everyone."

In June, Trump publicly stated he wanted to redevelop the federally owned, community course at East Potomac into a championship course. “When completed, this Course will have the ability to host Major Golf Tournaments, including The U.S. Open, The Ryder Cup, The [Professional Golfers' Association] Championship, and other top PGA Tour events,” Trump posted on social media.

The administration has been plowing ahead at breakneck speed ever since. At 4:55 p.m. on October 9, the Friday before a long federal holiday weekend, officials notified the court of plans to remove up to 400 trees. By the end of Saturday, at least 529 were gone.

“I am thoroughly unamused right now,” Judge Ana Reyes, a federal judge who had previously ordered the administration to "give reasonable notice" before removing more than 10 trees or closing the golf course, told government officials in an emergency hearing held on October 12, a federal holiday. “I do not know how I could’ve made it any clearer that I did not want what was to happen to happen.”

In addition to its plans for East Potomac Park, the administration has also been moving ahead with construction within West Potomac Park, where it is erecting gazebos and pouring concrete for a sculpture garden complex it has dubbed "The Garden of American Heroes." West Potomac Park is the setting for the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial, sitting on the cherry-blossom-lined Tidal Basin. Together, the two parks form a significant part of Washington's monumental core.

The National Parks Conservation Association, DC Preservation League, and other environmental, cultural, and preservation organizations have filed a separate lawsuit and a request for a preliminary injunction. In the complaint, the groups assert that the construction violates the laws that govern the authorization, review, and establishment of commemorative works on federal lands. The suit specifically references the Commemorative Works Act, National Historic Preservation Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and National Park Service Organic Act.

"This is national park land, and if they can move forward and take control and privatize this place, what's to stop them from doing that at any operation at any national park?" Stierli said. "Because essentially what they're showing is that they can treat the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act as if these laws don't even exist."

For Reyes, the federal judge overseeing the case, the issue at the core of the matter is even larger —the credibility of an American president.

This week, she issued a preliminary injunction that will temporarily prohibit the Trump administration from cutting down additional trees on the golf course, finding that the Interior Department likely violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

"Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President," Reyes wrote in her lengthy opinion. "Not to believe what the President has repeatedly told the American public." 

"And yet, here we are," Reyes wrote.

In her ruling, she instructed the administration not to remove or damage additional trees on the course and ordered it to provide 10 business days' written advance notice before making any irreparable modification to any forms or features of East Potomac Park, pending the outcome of the lawsuit. President Trump responded in a Truth Social post, stating that he believes "the judge does not have the Constitutional Right to 'ask for or receive notices,' which are time-consuming, unnecessary, expensive, and unconstitutional.' He further stated that the administration will appeal the ruling and that the course will close on November 15 as scheduled. 

For the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit, it's a reminder that what on the surface appears to be a lawsuit about a local golf course has national ramifications. 

"People across the country need to take into account that if this can happen to our park, it can happen to their park as well," Miller said. "The park that they care most about, that's owned by the federal government in their city or their state."