The Trump administration says it hasn’t decided what to do with the historic D.C. golf course President Donald Trump wants to rebuild. That isn’t stopping it from cutting down hundreds of the course’s trees, and critics are furious.
National Park Service crews begin another major round of cutting Saturday at East Potomac Golf Links, according to a federal court filing first reported by the Washington Post. The first two phases cover 169 trees and then 90 more.
“In total, the NPS estimates that up to 529 trees that do not contribute to the historic landscape will be removed,” Kevin Griess, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, wrote in a sworn declaration.
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell wasn’t buying it.
“No arborist could possibly have said that,” Mitchell wrote. “Or anyone who’s visited that park along the Potomac.”
The filing responds to a lawsuit challenging Trump’s plan to turn the century-old public course into an elite championship venue. The administration still calls the overhaul a “potential project.” It says the tree removal is maintenance that will happen either way.
The advocacy group Save East Po said the government is “masquerading” the cutting as historic restoration. It posted a photo of crews next to an oak.
“An enduring photo - where once a mighty oak stood is no longer,” the group wrote. “Took all but 5 minutes to kill a 50+ year old tree.”
Former NPR correspondent Pam Fessler shared the photo. “One of the many things the Trump Administration will go down in history for,” she wrote.
Paul Farhi, a former Washington Post media reporter, called it a “Trump home-improvement project that has gotten less attention than the Kennedy Center, ballroom, arch or Reflecting Pool.”
Paul Handley, a veteran AFP journalist, was blunter.
“Republicans support this destruction of public park property,” he wrote. “Republicans are pigs.”
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes declined last month to block the earlier cutting. “I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees,” she said.
Media insider Paul Farhi chimed in, calling it "aTrump home-improvement project that has gotten less attention than the Kennedy Center, ballroom, arch or Reflecting Pool: The redesigning of a D.C. golf course."