Judge ‘furious’ as 430 trees are chopped down from golf course Trump wants to renovate

CNN and CBS News report that U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes criticized the Trump administration on Monday after crews felled 430 trees at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, a public course President Donald Trump wants to overhaul. She kept a temporary bar on further cutting in place until 2 p.m. Tuesday, according to CNN · Fox News.

The Justice Department had alerted the court and plaintiffs on Friday that clearing would start Saturday. Reyes said she was furious and told department lawyers they had lost credibility. CBS News adds that she plans to require three days' notice for future action, and that lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League claimed 529 trees came down Saturday, a higher count than 430.

Testimony traced the work to a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report favoring a return to the course's original links look. Frank Lands of the National Park Service said Greg Wischer, an Interior Department deputy chief of staff, directed him on October 5 to implement it. CNN reports Reyes will hold another hearing next week and suggested she may have been misled. Kevin Griess, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said workers freed from America 250 events made the timing possible.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CNN · Fox News and CBS News’s reporting. Read the full story at CNN · Fox News → Also at CBS News →