Rep. Don Beyer isn’t mincing words. The Northern Virginia congressman unloaded on President Trump Friday after the President announced he intends to tear up East Potomac Park and build an expensive new golf course on it, a plan Beyer says will wall off roads and paths that thousands of local cyclists, runners and walkers use every week, many of them crossing over from our side of the river to do it.
Beyer’s statement landed a week after chainsaws hit the park. Golfers watched crews take down trees on Saturday, Oct. 10, and by Monday the cuts had become the subject of a four-hour court hearing. The count runs into the hundreds. Axios reported roughly 500 trees came down, and a court filing reviewed by Newsweek put it at about 430. The National Park Service didn’t tell the court it planned to cut hundreds of trees until 4:55 p.m. that Friday, hours before the work began.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes was having none of it. She accused Justice Department lawyers of breaking an understanding that major renovation would wait until the court had a chance to review the plans. When a DOJ lawyer insisted the work was not a renovation, Reyes called that claim preposterous. She then temporarily halted the removals, finding the plaintiffs likely faced immediate and irreparable harm because cutting down hundreds of trees is permanent while a short delay costs the government nothing.
The administration says the critics have it wrong. The Interior Department maintains the Park Service is simply carrying out a seven-year-old plan to deal with tree overgrowth at the course. National Mall and Memorial Parks Superintendent Kevin Griess has sworn the work is not a renovation or redesign and that no healthy cherry trees would be cut. Trump himself has called the course virtually unplayable and promised a redesign built to the highest standards of golf that the general public will love.
Beyer flat-out isn’t buying it. “The Trump Administration was clearly lying about the reasons for their mass felling of trees in East Potomac last weekend,” Beyer said. “They were lying to conceal from the American people that, at a time when our country is at war and everyone is worried about the economy and high prices, the President simply doesn’t care. Trump is focused on building an upscale golf course within walking distance of the White House, on his fancy ballroom, and on his memorial arch to himself.”
Then he went at the design. “The design Trump is pursuing would block off or eliminate roads and paths used by large numbers of local residents for cycling and walking, no doubt to make the area another exclusive hangout for his rich and powerful friends. He is almost certainly doing all of this at great expense on taxpayers’ dime, and if recent history is a guide, with corrupt contracting practices. What a disgrace.”
This isn’t a drive-by press release for Beyer. Last month he led a site tour at East Potomac with cyclists, runners and neighbors to sound the alarm, and he has since joined a congressional investigation into the administration’s work at the site, including the Park Service contracts tied to Trump’s takeover of the East Potomac Golf Links.
The legal fight is far from over. The DC Preservation League’s lawsuit argues the overhaul would violate the 1897 act of Congress that created the park for the recreation and pleasure of the people. The course opened in 1919 and is considered one of the most historically significant in the country, with a role in the fight for civil rights. Trump is also planning to renovate a military golf course just outside Washington that presidents have used for decades.
For Northern Virginians who bike the Mount Vernon Trail into Hains Point or run the loop on a Sunday morning, this is no Beltway abstraction. It’s our park, too, and right now a federal judge, a lawsuit and a congressman from across the river are all that’s standing between it and the bulldozers.
