Hundreds of trees cut down in a golf course: a judge urgently suspends Donald Trump's renovation project

Judge Ana Reyes granted satisfaction to environmental defenders who were alarmed by the cutting down on Saturday of some 500 trees on the site, according to them, and by the authorities' plan to remove hundreds more during the week.

“The removal of hundreds of trees from the East Potomac Golf Course is permanent,” she emphasizes in a brief decision, consequently ordering a ban on any tree felling until Tuesday morning or further order of the court.

She also convened an emergency hearing Monday morning by videoconference to hear the arguments of both parties, in particular on the lack of reasonable notice from the government, which only informed the court and the opposing party of its intentions at the end of the day on Friday.

Donald Trump, a great golf fan, wants to renovate this course, which he says is in a state of disrepair, affirming that it could eventually host major tournaments.

Since his return to the White House in January 2025, the former real estate developer has multiplied construction and renovation projects to leave his mark on Washington, ensuring that he wants to restore the splendor of the federal capital, neglected according to him by his predecessors.

But the Democratic opposition accuses him of squandering public money for his own vanity and many of these projects are the subject of bitter legal challenges.

Among them is the pharaonic ballroom that he built at the White House, at the cost of bulldozing an entire wing of the presidential residence, or the renovation of the Kennedy Center performance hall, on which he wishes to have his name affixed.

Donald Trump himself recognized this personal motivation, in an interview published at the beginning of September.

“No one will do it when I’m gone. When I leave here, no one will,” he told New York Magazine, which asked him if he had launched all these projects for his own glory.