East Potomac: Trump Orders Work "IMMEDIATELY," Calls Reyes a "Crazed Lunatic" — and the Judge Who Withdrew Her Rule 11 Demand Keeps the TRO Through Oct. 26
UPDATE (Oct. 19–21, 2026): The collision this case was building toward has arrived — the president is publicly ordering work to begin while his own Justice Department tells the judge there is no final plan, and the fight over that contradiction is now being fought through Rule 11, a failed disqualification motion, and a "Trash Island" photo post.
The underlying suit: the D.C. Preservation League and two regular golfers sued Interior, the Park Service, Secretary Burgum and acting NPS Director Jessica Bowron in February 2026, arguing the "Washington National" championship-course plan is being carried out without NEPA, National Historic Preservation Act, and NPS Organic Act reviews — and that ~30,000 cubic yards of White House East Wing excavation debris was dumped on the course without review. For months, Judge Ana C. Reyes (D.D.C.) deferred interim relief on the government's assurances that "no plans have been approved." Then Interior approved a tree-removal plan in five days (Oct. 5–9), notified plaintiffs at 4:55 p.m. the Friday before a holiday weekend, and crews cut roughly 430 trees the next day. Reyes's TRO — extended to Oct. 26 — found the government rushed "because President Trump demands haste on his redesign," not out of any zeal for the 2019 Cultural Landscape Report it cites.
Then came the weekend of Oct. 17–18. Trump announced on Truth Social that 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" — directly contradicting the government's litigation position that there is "no agency action" on any plan. Reyes gave DOJ an 8 p.m. Sunday filing deadline; the resulting brief was signed only by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. Hours before Monday's hearing, Trump posted: "The judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane? … Work is scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY!" (Trump also says work begins Nov. 15.)
At Monday's nearly seven-hour hearing, Reyes invoked Rule 11 and ordered the DOJ attorneys at the table to put their names on Woodward's filing; they refused. She set deadlines, extended them — then dropped the demand entirely: "Late breaking news," Reyes said. "I'm going to withdraw request that DOJ refile yesterday's brief with identification of who signed it. we've all got better things to spend our time on." The night before, she had denied DOJ's motion to disqualify her, writing: "It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion. But it is much harder to meet the demanding legal standard against a full record."
On Tuesday, after the hearing, Trump posted photos of crews removing trees at the park: "Here are pictures of Trash Island for the Judge to study. This is just a small area, and better than some!" Per The Hill: "It is unclear when the photos the president posted on Tuesday were taken, but a recent order issued by Reyes forbids any future tree cutting while the case is being litigated."
A witness hearing — where the unresolved question of compelling Interior Secretary Burgum's testimony (Trump claims Burgum signed off on the plan; DOJ says there is no final plan) could be decided — was set for Tuesday, Oct. 21. Steve Vladeck's verdict on the record: "the problem this imbroglio illustrates isn't that the administration loses in the district courts; it's that it increasingly seems to treat district courts less as coequal actors whose role it must respect than as obstacles to be outrun and then delegitimized when they catch up."
What it means: The TRO expires Oct. 26 — Monday of election week. Trump says work starts IMMEDIATELY/Nov. 15; DOJ tells the judge there is no final plan. Reyes's next orders (today's witnesses, then the TRO lapse) decide which is true in law — and whether the first contempt fight over a presidential public order arrives days before the midterms.