A Biden-appointed judge blasted Trump officials Monday for clearing hundreds of trees at a D.C. golf course, claiming the move destroyed the government's credibility.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes raised her voice in a federal hearing over work at East Potomac Golf Links in southwest Washington, D.C. The National Park Service had begun removing trees as part of administration renovation plans for the 106-year-old public course.

Newsweek reported that Reyes accused the government of destroying its credibility with the court after more than 500 trees came down without what she called adequate notice. She extended a temporary restraining order and set another hearing for October 19.

Reyes, appointed by former President Joe Biden, told government lawyers she was beyond disappointed. The exchange fits a familiar pattern of Biden-appointed judges blocking Trump administration priorities in court.

Plaintiffs, including individual golfers and the DC Preservation League, said 529 trees were felled two days after the government notified the court on October 9 of planned restoration work. They alleged irreversible harm to a historic landscape and failure to follow federal environmental and historic preservation laws.

Reyes says the tree work wrecked the government's standing

Reyes told attorneys she had trusted them not to do what they did.

She said the removal of more than 500 trees “has cost the government all of its credibility.” When Justice Department lawyers argued the administration had done its best to comply with notice orders, she rejected that claim outright.

"No, you did not do your best. You did your absolute worst,"

Reyes said. She added she was “at a total loss” to understand the government’s actions and warned that any violation of her halt order would bring contempt proceedings “if that order is violated by two seconds.”

Deputy National Park Service Director Frank Lands testified he first learned of the tree-cutting plans on October 5 at the direction of the Department of the Interior. That was five days before the work. Lands said he did not know why the sudden urgency and had been told to implement the 2019 order “as soon as practical.”

When DOJ attorneys said they had not known details of the tree-cutting plan, Reyes answered sharply.

"Ignorance is not an excuse."

She ordered Lands to retain all communications about the East Potomac project, including notes from the October 5 meeting. Reyes also called for deputy chief of staff Gregory Wischer to appear. When he could not testify Tuesday, she rescheduled the hearing for Monday, October 19.

In a short order Tuesday, Reyes barred further tree felling through Monday, October 26, 2026, and required three business days’ written advance notice to the court and plaintiffs before any irreparable modification to a permanent form or feature of the course. The fight echoes other courtroom clashes, including one where a Biden-appointed judge ordered the release of an alleged MS-13 member wanted for murder.

Interior says the work follows a seven-year-old restoration plan

A U.S. Department of the Interior spokesperson defended the project as overdue stewardship, not a sudden demolition.

"The National Park Service is finally implementing a 7-year-old plan to address tree overgrowth at East Potomac Golf Course,"

the spokesperson told Newsweek. The work includes selective tree and vegetation removal guided by the 2019 Cultural Landscape Report. Officials said it will restore the course’s historic character and reopen views toward the Washington Monument, National War College, Potomac River, and Washington Channel.

Cultural Landscape Reports are planning tools that document historic resources and the steps needed to care for them. The spokesperson said NPS recognizes the importance of trees to the park and its visitors and described the work as carefully planned required stewardship.

Government filings argued the latest tree work is separate from the plaintiffs’ original challenge to wider redevelopment. The 2019 report itself dates to the first Trump administration. The current effort aims at a championship-level public venue while restoring long-obscured sight lines.

East Potomac Golf Course carries its own civil-rights history. In 1941, Black golfers challenged segregation there. Then-Interior Secretary Harold Ickes ordered the course open to all players. Plaintiffs have stressed the site’s place in a National Register-listed historic district. The administration’s broader D.C. refurbishments have also covered the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, fountains, and White House grounds work.

Activist groups frame restoration as a vanity rush

A coalition fighting the work cast the project as an unlawful push to turn a public recreation space into a high-end golf course.

“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,"

the coalition said in a statement. “We are pleased that the court intervened and will prevent additional work while we seek more lasting relief.”

Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman called the tree removal a familiar tactic. She said the Trump-Vance administration acts quickly “to irrevocably alter a cherished national landmark, just to advance another one of President Donald Trump’s pet vanity projects,” and urged the court to move before further damage to “a jewel of our national park system.”

Those claims sit beside the Interior Department’s account of a multi-year plan to fix overgrowth and restore historic views. Reyes herself discussed wanting an order that bars further trees or other work without 72 hours’ notice to the plaintiffs and the court before lifting the temporary restraining order. Similar legal pressure has appeared in other Trump-related fights, from whistleblower claims about Letitia James to partisan court battles over administration initiatives.

Reyes ordered the tree removal halted through at least 7 a.m. Tuesday, then extended the restraining order through 2 p.m. Tuesday before the longer October 26 order. She made clear she expected strict compliance.

The judge’s tone and the speed of the tree work have drawn intense attention. Coverage of the same hearing has already noted how a Biden judge erupts at DOJ lawyers when administration projects move forward in the capital.

Trump administration officials have directed federal and some private funding toward multiple D.C. improvements, including the Reflecting Pool, fountains near the White House and Union Station, National Mall statues, and White House construction. About 20 fountains and 30 statues have been refurbished in related efforts. The East Potomac work is one piece of that larger push to upgrade aging public assets.

Plaintiffs continue to seek lasting relief. The government continues to maintain that the tree and vegetation work implements a longstanding NPS planning document and constitutes required park stewardship. Another hearing is set for October 19 so Reyes can hear further from administration officials.

Public courses and national park landscapes need maintenance. When a seven-year-old restoration plan meets a Biden-appointed judge’s fury, the real test is whether the law is applied evenly or used to freeze routine stewardship in place.