President Donald Trump lashed out at U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes early Monday morning after his administration’s effort to have her removed from a case involving his planned overhaul of a public golf course was rejected Sunday, calling her a “crazed lunatic” and possibly “insane.”
On Sunday, Trump revealed more details regarding his plan to renovate the East Potomac Golf Links, a publicly owned golf course on federal parkland in Washington, D.C., saying restoration work would begin Nov. 15. The Trump administration began removing trees from the site in August, accelerating in October after giving the court just 15 hours’ notice, prompting the judge to temporarily block all further tree-cutting on the site last week.
“The United States Department of Interior wants to take a terrible and very unsafe golf course, and make it into a great, safe, and prestigious golf course. They have an absolute right to do so,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “It’s as simple as that! The judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane?”
Trump’s Sunday announcement, which laid out a roughly 15-month timeline for finishing the golf course, came as Reyes’ order bars tree removal at the site through Oct. 26. William L. Shipley, a former federal prosecutor, suspected that Trump was “goading” Reyes into a trap, prodding her to issue a preliminary injunction that he predicted would be overturned on appeal. Shipley pointed to the Supreme Court’s move to let construction on Trump’s White House ballroom continue.
“The experts at ‘Interior’ are allowed to do this First Class renovation ‘as of right.’ They do not need an approval,” Trump continued Monday. “Work is scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY! The finished product will be World Class, and bring income and great prestige back to D.C.”
