Four hundred and thirty trees. Cut down in a few hours on a holiday weekend while nobody was watching. Not for housing or a hospital or anything a resident of D.C. asked for. For a golf course. The president of the United States looked at a public park on federal land and decided the fairway wasn’t pretty enough for him.
A federal judge called it bad faith and blocked the chainsaws. The National Park Service broke environmental law doing it. The administration’s move after getting caught was to announce a 15-month closure and share a redesign map like a kid showing off a crayon drawing of a mansion he’ll never build. Seven hundred and twenty-nine trees on the full list. The ones still standing owe their lives to a temporary court order that expires October 26.
He says it’ll host “world-class tournaments.” The people who actually used that course wanted shade and a place to play on a Saturday. But that was never the point. The point is that he saw public land and couldn’t stop himself.