President Trump says construction on a new championship golf course at historic East Potomac Golf Links begins Nov. 15, despite a federal judge’s recent limits on site changes.

President Trump said Sunday that work will start next month on a world-class championship golf course at the site of East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., under a plan drawn up with the Department of the Interior and architect Tom Fazio.

In a Truth Social post, he framed the project as a jobs engine for the capital and a public course built to host major tournaments. He set the start date as Nov. 15 and said the existing layout would close for about 15 months until the new one opens.

The announcement came less than a week after U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes barred the administration from removing trees at the course through Oct. 16 and required three business days’ notice to the court and plaintiffs before any irreparable modification. Trump did not mention the court order in his post.

CBS News reported the president’s timeline and the related legal fight over the overhaul of the public links.

Interior and Fazio plan aims at major tournaments

Trump said the Department of the Interior, under Secretary Doug Burgum, worked with Fazio on the design. He described the finished course as remaining open to the public while ready for events on the scale of the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup, and the Presidents Cup.

He called the project a “tremendously positive” economic opportunity for Washington that would “create many jobs.” That pitch fits a broader pattern of administration moves that prioritize concrete results for American workers and public assets, much as Trump has defended energy decisions as America First choices for drivers.

On the current condition of East Potomac, Trump was blunt. He said the site once “was famous for no trees” but has become “overgrown, dysfunctional, and unsafe.”

He wrote that the course is an “old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use or effect... with falling, dangerous, and disease infested trees, and, importantly, a collapsing and hazardous seawall.”

"I am pleased to announce that the Department of the Interior, under the auspices of Secretary Doug Burgum, and in conjunction with famed Golf Course Architect, Tom Fazio, has developed a plan to build a World Class Championship Golf Course on the site of the current East Potomac Golf Links, located in Washington, D.C."

That was the core of the Sunday announcement. Construction, he added, begins Nov. 15.

Judge’s order followed weekend tree cutting

Hundreds of trees were cut down the weekend before Reyes acted. A photo dated Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, showed a golfer walking past the stump of a large tree at the course.

Reyes then blocked further tree removal through Oct. 16. Until that date, her order said the administration may not make “any irreparable modification” to East Potomac without first giving three business days’ notice to the court and to the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs are the D.C. Preservation League and two local golfers. Their attorneys cast the project as an unlawful push to turn public recreation space into a high-end golf facility. Their language was sharp.

"The administration has time and again tried to avoid the law in their mad rush toward converting a public recreation space to a high-end golf course and today's order will stop them from doing further irreparable harm to a precious public resource."

They added they were pleased the court stepped in while they seek longer-term relief.

"We are pleased that the court intervened and will prevent additional work while we seek more lasting relief."

Trump’s post did not answer those claims. He stuck to the rebuild, the public-access pledge, the tournament standard, and the jobs case. The Nov. 15 start falls after the Oct. 16 limit in the order, though the broader lawsuit continues.

Public course, public stakes

East Potomac sits in the nation’s capital as a working public links, not a private club. Trump’s plan keeps it public while upgrading what he calls a broken and unsafe site, including a seawall he says is collapsing.

Critics want the courts to slow or stop the overhaul. The White House is moving on a fixed calendar and a named architect. Readers who track other swift executive steps will recognize the pace, including when Trump froze new Russia sanctions before they could take hold.

Funding details, full permit status, and the complete text of Reyes’s order were not laid out in the Sunday coverage. Names of the two golfer plaintiffs and the precise actors who felled the trees also were not provided. What is clear is the announced start date, the 15-month closure window, the Interior-Fazio partnership, and the temporary notice rules through mid-October.

Legal fights over land use and historic sites often stretch for months. Trump is treating the course condition and the economic upside as reasons not to wait. Similar clarity has marked other recent administration fights that reached the courts, including when the Supreme Court again backed Trump in a campaign-rates dispute.

For D.C. residents and visitors who use the links, the practical result is a long closure followed by a redesigned championship layout that the president says will still welcome the public. For the preservation group and the golfer plaintiffs, the fight is about process and what they call irreparable change to a public resource.

Those two views now sit side by side on the calendar: notice rules through Oct. 16, construction set for Nov. 15, and roughly 15 months of rebuild after that.

Trump has also pressed symbolic and practical changes that land quickly in daily life, such as when Google Maps adopted a “Lake America” label for U.S. users after an executive order. The golf-course rebuild is a bricks-and-mortar version of the same instinct, fix what is failing and put people to work doing it.

A dilapidated public course with hazardous trees and a failing seawall does not improve itself. The administration has named a start date, an architect, and a public-access promise; opponents have a lawsuit and a short-term court order. Taxpayers can judge which path treats a worn-out city asset like something worth fixing.