In his first detailed comments about the Washington, D.C., golf course he wants to renovate, President Trump offered a scathing assessment of the current state of the facility.
After touring the more than 100-year-old Blue Course at East Potomac Golf Links on Sunday, President Trump in a post on Truth Social called the course “dilapidated, worn-out and extremely dangerous,” citing falling tree branches as a threat to golfers. “Furthermore, the sprinkler system is gone, there is no filtration, and the sprinklers that remain cannot perform even 10% of their required function,” the president continued. “The grass is mostly dead, the greens are virtually unplayable, and the overall condition of the course is very poor.”
Trump said he visited the site with a group that included Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose National Park Service is overseeing the project, and Tom Fazio, the golf course architect Trump handpicked to redesign the course. “We are determined to build one of the greatest golf courses anywhere in the world in this incredible location with unparalleled views of the water and the monuments of Washington, D.C.,” President Trump said in a statement.
He said construction on the course will begin Sept. 1 and “will move quickly.”
President Trump wants a new golf course in Washington, D.C. Preservationists have other ideas
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Before any real deal is reached (legally, anyway), the NPS will need court approval. After seizing control of the beloved land from the National Links Trust late last year, the Trump administration unveiled a plan that bears little resemblance to East Potomac’s existing Walter Travis design and also eliminated nine of the other 18 holes on the land. Plans for the seemingly more upscale course (and the park as a whole) have raised concerns from area golfers about access and future green fee costs.
The threat of large-scale demolition and reconsideration of East Potomac Park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, prompted a lawsuit by the D.C. Preservation Alliance in February and an emergency motion to prevent the start of renovations to the nuclear power plant in May. The federal judge who ruled on the motion told Justice Department lawyers that there would be “serious consequences” if the government proceeded with extensive work on the course without approval or prior notice to the court.
The next hearing on the motion is scheduled for July 2, said Rebecca Miller, executive director of the D.C. Preservation Alliance. golf.com Early this month.
Miller said he expects a judge to issue an injunction preventing the nuclear power plant from proceeding with construction until it receives approval from all necessary parties. Miller said she would like to see Travis’ design faithfully restored. “Under Preservation Act 106, the golf course defines the character of the historic district,” Miller said. “So, yes, it needs to be restored. If changes are made, those changes can be minimized to have less negative impact on the course.” She added, “A major redesign would not be consistent with preservation standards.”
On Monday, the D.C. Preservation Alliance filed further court documents. This time it was a “Friend of the Court” instruction book from the Walter J. Travis Society that included a historical perspective on the Blue Course.
“The association is not asking the courts to decide who should redesign the East Potomac River or whether its 1920 course should be frozen,” the briefing said. “Courses evolve. The Park Service itself says so. What the Park Service cannot do is change the course of history while treating the law as if it doesn’t exist.”
The manual then states: “For those of you who don’t play golf, let me just say this in a nutshell: The historic value of the East Potomac lies not in the soil itself, but in the placement and placement of the features on the ground. If you change the placement, you change the historic resource.”
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump concluded that the course would be “not only designed to the highest standards of golf, but designed in a way that the general public will love.”
His first appearance in golf paints a bleak picture after touring the historic D.C. golf course that President Trump hopes to renovate.
