WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday decried a “highly destructive and political decision” from a federal judge after she ordered a two-week delay on renovations at a historic Washington public golf course that he has been trying to redevelop into a championship-level venue.
In a social media post, Trump said his administration will “immediately appeal, on an expedited basis” the temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Ana
Reyes, which she issued just before East Potomac Golf Links was due to close Sunday for 15 months.
“It is in a terrible state of disrepair, as anybody can see by just looking at the pictures that are now circulating all over the Country, and in the Court,” said Trump, who spent much of the weekend posting photos on his social media site of the golf course. “They don’t call it Trash Island for no reason!”
Trump had announced work on the site along the Potomac River would begin that day despite the legal challenge initiated against the project in February by the DC Preservation League and two local golfers.
The plaintiffs argue that the president's plan would change the character of the accessible golf course and make it unaffordable, something Trump has denied. They had sought the stop-work order, saying that closing the course and launching work on the project would “irreparably injure plaintiffs and the public interest.”
The president’s public announcements on social media last month outlining the date of the closure of East Potomac Park and linking it to the renovation of the golf course weighed heavily in the judge's decision.
Reyes, in her ruling Saturday, noted that those posts presented a problem for the government, indicating that Trump's redevelopment plan was final and that the National Park Service "will close the Park to implement it.”
Both points, she wrote, "favor granting Plaintiffs’ motion for another temporary restraining order.”
The order is in effect through Nov. 28. The park’s redevelopment is one of multiple projects in the nation’s capital that Trump has championed to remake the city. They include a large memorial arch, a White House ballroom and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, among others.
Reyes’ order was the latest in a series of rulings in lawsuits challenging Trump’s projects that were issued just hours before construction was expected to begin. A different judge recently ordered a 14-day delay on work for the arch, a decision that came shortly after a key planning commission stacked with Trump appointees approved plans for the project.
