What is Going Down at East Potomac?

On Sunday morning, President Donald Trump delivered a Truth Social post giving more detail surrounding the potential renovations (or complete remake?) of the historic East Potomac golf course in Washington D.C.

This has been an ongoing saga with a president that has made many claims of how much he loves golf, however it has become increasingly evident that it is a very specific style of golf that he is referring to. 

One of the oldest public courses in the U.S., East Potomac has been a municipal park ever since its land in the Potomac River flats was reclaimed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1897. Since then, it has become a golf course and has been a beacon of public accessibility with significant instances of desegregation on a golf course, unheard of at the time, and a vision of the sport that includes everyone, even those who do not participate in the golf.

East Potomac has received many renovations in the recent decades that have adapted the course to not only be a place for golf to be played, but a fully functioning public park with bike paths, walking trails and views of the Potomac River. This has been an effort by the National Links Trust, the managing entity of East Potomac, to instill a vision of American golf that integrates into a given public space as opposed to clashing against it. And it is this vision that the President seems to be pushing back on. 

On 4:55pm, Friday October 9, a notice was given by the Trump Administration that a tree removal operation would begin that weekend, citing that the course was “overgrown” and “unsafe.” Since then, more than 500 trees have been removed from East Potomac without the consent of the course staff, National Links Trust or D.C. District, Judge Ana Reyes, who has been butting legal heads with Trump over the renovations at East Potomac for the better part of this year. The Trump Admin has stated that the tree removal is a separate effort to the redesign, but as more information comes to light, this does not seem to be entirely true.

On Friday night, former White House Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia shared a post on X picturing her standing next to President Trump with a map sitting on his desk that had been blurred out in post.

This map was confirmed by a local advocacy group, Save East Po, to be a proposed redesign of the peninsula into a championship golf course. This information leaking proved to be a point of frustration to the President, as Zacharia was removed from her duty the following day after this was posted.

President Trump then went on to post a string of photos from East Potomac around midnight last night, referring to the peninsula as “trash island,” with pictures showing portions of the course that were dilapidated or demolished. It should be noted that many of these photos showed trucks hauling logs of trees that were being removed at his command.

The future of East Potomac is currently unclear. The President seems set that the new Fazio design of the course will be open and ready within the coming years and will host "World Class Tournaments such as the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup, and the Presidents Cup”, while many legal professionals say he is outside of his right to make any significant changes to the property without consent of the managing bodies.

{As always, Play Boldly}