Judge tears into Trump administration for felling trees on D.C. golf course the president wants to remake

“I’m furious,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes told a Justice Department lawyer. “I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done.”

By Dareh Gregorian and Gary Grumbach

A federal judge on Monday ripped the Trump administration for “inexcusable” gamesmanship after it removed hundreds of trees from a public golf course that the president said he wants to turn into “one of the greatest golf courses anywhere in the world” — a renovation plan being challenged in court.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said lawyers for the government had assured her the administration would give her ample warning if it planned any “irreversible” actions at East Potomac Golf Links, only to chop down over 400 trees on the course over the weekend without proper notice.

“I’m furious,” Reyes told attorneys from the Justice Department.

“I was hearing from everyone on plaintiffs’ side this was going to happen. I said repeatedly, ‘No, I trust the government.’ I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done,” the judge said. She called the government’s actions “inexcusable.”

“What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility,” Reyes added.

An attorney for the government, Marissa Piropato, said it gave notice in a court filing shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, the beginning of the three-day holiday weekend. The work began the next morning, with 430 trees being removed.

Piropato told the judge “we did our best” to notify the court and the plaintiff in the case, the DC Preservation League.

“You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst,” the judge snapped.

The judge issued an order early Monday temporarily barring any other trees from being removed until at least Tuesday, and called an emergency hearing with just hours’ notice, despite it being a federal court holiday.

Reyes had previously made clear she did not want to issue a restraining order in the case — “I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees. I am a judge,” she proclaimed at a hearing last month — but said the government’s actions had left her no choice.

She called in two officials from the National Park Service to testify virtually about the speed of the government’s actions. Both said the plan came together in the last week, and one, Deputy Director for Operations Frank Lands, said he’d been directed to begin executing it by Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.