Trump tours historic D.C. golf course he wants to renovate, paints bleak picture

Former President Donald Trump toured the historic East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, a property he intends to renovate. In a Truth Social post, Trump delivered a scathing assessment of the course’s current condition, describing it as “dilapidated, worn out, and very dangerous.”

“Falling tree branches are a danger to golfers,” Trump wrote. “Additionally, the sprinkler system is gone, there is no filtration, and the remaining sprinklers are incapable of even doing 10% of what is needed. The grass is largely dead, the greens are virtually unplayable, and the Course is in very poor general condition.”

Trump stated he visited the site with a group that included Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose National Park Service is overseeing the project, and golf-course architect Tom Fazio, whom Trump handpicked to redesign the course.

“It was determined that, on this fantastic site, with water and unparalleled views of D.C.’s Monuments, we will build one of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote. He added that construction will begin on Sept. 1 and “will go quickly.”

However, before any earnest construction can begin, the NPS needs court approval. After wresting control of the beloved property from the National Links Trust late last year, the Trump administration unveiled plans for East Potomac that bore little resemblance to the existing Walter Travis design and also did away with nine of the property’s other 18 holes. The plans for the seemingly more upscale course (and the park at large) have raised concerns from area golfers about access and future cost of green fees.

The threat of a wholesale demolition and re-imagination of East Potomac Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, triggered a February lawsuit from the DC Preservation League and, in May, an emergency motion to prohibit the NPS from beginning any renovations. The federal judge who ruled on that motion told Justice Department lawyers that there would be “serious consequences” if the administration proceeded with any major work on the course without getting approval and notifying the court in advance.

The next hearing for that motion is scheduled for July 2, Rebecca Miller, the DC Preservation League’s executive director, told GOLF.com earlier this month.

Miller said she is hopeful the judge will issue an injunction that would prevent the NPS from proceeding with any construction until it has approval from all necessary parties. Miller said she would like to see a faithful restoration of Travis’s design. “Under Section 106 of the Preservation Act, that golf course is character-defining for the historic district,” Miller said. “So, yes, it should be restored. If there are going to be changes made, those changes can be minimized so that they have less of an adverse effect on the course.” She added, “A wholesale redesign would not be consistent with preservation standards.”

On Monday, the DC Preservation League filed more court documents — this time, a “friend of the court” briefing with historic perspectives about the Blue Course from the Walter J. Travis Society.

“The Society does not ask the Court to decide who should redesign East Potomac, or to freeze the course as it stood in 1920,” the briefing reads. “Courses evolve; the Park Service says so itself. What the Park Service cannot do is change a historic course while treating the law as if it were not there.”

Later, the briefing states, “For the non-golfer, the short point is this: the historic value of East Potomac lies in the arrangement, the placement of features on the ground, not in the dirt itself. Change the arrangement and you change the historic resource.”

In his Truth Social post, Trump concluded that the course will be “designed to the Highest Standards of Golf, but also in such a way that the General Public will love it.”