Well, here’s the nightly special: the Justice Department told a federal court that President Trump’s plan to remake Washington’s public East Potomac Golf Course is, in fact, real. The filing says the National Park Service will submit a Tom Fazio rendering to the National Capital Planning Commission on October 30 and close East Potomac Park south of Buckeye Drive, including the course, on November 15.
That matters because U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes had already issued a preliminary injunction barring additional tree removal or damage at the course while the lawsuit proceeds. The order also requires the government to give 10 days’ written notice before irreversible changes to the park. So the administration’s operating procedure appears to be: tee off, slice one into the woods, then ask the court whether anybody saw it. Very efficient. Like trying to order roast beef after midnight and discovering the menu is just a stack of executive directives.
The immediate issue is not whether anybody enjoys a better golf course. It is whether federal officials can move ahead on a major alteration of public land while the government’s own lawyers and agencies have struggled to give the court a straight, complete account of what is planned and when. Public parks are not a private club’s back nine, no matter how much the guy in the cart insists otherwise.
Sources
- https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-golf-course-renovation-82e42d1036a4c964555df8a2187546f4
- https://apnews.com/article/f1fafe7da7796e24b2b0626bc9f9ba42
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Featured image: Looking S across Blue Course at Red Course – East Potomac Golf Course – East Potomac Park – 2013-08-25.jpg by Tim Evanson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
