Judge declares she’s ‘not the Lorax’ during hearing on Trump’s DC golf course renovation

DC Judge Channels Dr. Seuss as Golf Course Tree Removal Sparks Legal Firestorm

Activelifezero.com – In a courtroom moment that blended judicial frustration with pop-culture irony, US District Judge Ana Reyes invoked the Lorax to explain why she would not intervene in a dispute over felled trees at one of Washington’s most visible public spaces. The remark came during a status conference on September 3, 2026, a proceeding nominally designed to chart the next steps in litigation over President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to convert the East Potomac Golf Course into a championship-caliber facility.

“I do not speak for the trees, I am not the Lorax,” Reyes told the assembled parties, pausing to add, “I am a judge.”

The quip landed amid a tense exchange that had consumed most of the session. Weeks of public outcry, activist mobilization, and speculation had built around the National Park Service’s decision to begin clearing trees at the course in late August. By the time the judge called the hearing to order, the atmosphere in the courtroom carried the weight of a community feeling its green canopy was being stripped away without adequate explanation.

The Tree Removal Dispute

Department of Justice attorneys appeared at the hearing and disclosed that roughly 150 trees had been cut from the property — 77 classified as invasive species and another 77 identified as dead, dying, or posing a hazard to visitors. The park as a whole contains approximately 3,800 trees, meaning the removals represented a modest fraction of the total canopy, though their visibility near the National Mall made the action feel far larger than the numbers suggest.

The Department of Interior issued a written explanation stating that arborists routinely monitor trees across the park for safety risks and that removal decisions are made when specimens are judged to be declining or dangerous. Before the hearing, however, the plaintiffs — the DC Preservation League joined by two local golfers — filed court declarations casting doubt on the characterization of the removed trees as rotting or hazardous. During the session itself, though, the challengers walked back that position, telling the court they had no basis to contest the stated rationale for the felling.

A Judge Under Pressure

Reyes, appointed by former President Joe Biden, made clear that the controversy had reached her personally. She described receiving threats, including one from an individual who told her he would “remove” her if she failed to save the trees. She also flagged the symbolic awkwardness of the timing: the year marks America’s 250th anniversary, and the image of a sitting president overseeing the chopping of cherry trees — a species tied to the apocryphal George Washington legend — had become a court matter.

“People are pretty upset,” Reyes observed, before delivering the Lorax line that drew the most attention from observers.

The judge had previously declined to issue an injunction halting work at the course, explaining that she was not persuaded any statute had been violated. Over the summer she directed both sides to negotiate a reporting protocol under which the administration would inform the court of new construction activity while the litigation proceeded. At Thursday’s session she expressed satisfaction with how the government had kept her apprised and declined to impose additional notification obligations on the planning process.

What Happens Next in the Litigation

The hearing was formally a status conference — a check-in to determine where the case should go procedurally. The administration had earlier moved to dismiss the suit outright. In filings submitted the day before the hearing, Interior Department lawyers pointed to recent Supreme Court decisions that had sided with the executive branch in disputes over the construction of the White House East Wing ballroom and an executive order governing mail voting. They argued those rulings effectively required the court to throw out the golf course challenge.

Reyes did not rule on that motion. Instead, she granted the challengers leave to amend their complaint to account for the new legal landscape and signaled she would decide any renewed motion to dismiss on an expedited schedule. The DC Preservation League and its two golfer co-plaintiffs are pressing for a court order that would bar the administration from advancing the renovation plan until the litigation is resolved.

“What I don’t want is to be here with a fait accompli,” Reyes said, voicing sympathy for the preservation league’s fear that the government could execute an irreversible step without warning, leaving a judge to untangle the consequences after the fact.

The Course and the Plan

The East Potomac Golf Course occupies a 300-acre manmade peninsula situated just south of the National Mall. It currently operates two nine-hole layouts alongside an 18-hole course, serving as one of the capital’s most accessible public golf destinations. Trump, a longtime avid golfer, first announced his intention to take over and expand the municipal facility in May of this year.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum subsequently unveiled a rendering of the proposed renovations produced by Fazio Design, a consultancy led by golf architect Tom Fazio. Fazio previously designed the course at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, property and three other presidential golf facilities. The planned transformation would elevate the site from a public municipal course to a championship-level venue, a shift that has drawn criticism from preservation advocates who argue the peninsula’s trees, wetlands, and open vistas constitute irreplaceable public landscape adjacent to the nation’s most visited memorial grounds.

The legal fight, now entering a new procedural phase, will determine whether the administration can proceed with construction while the courts weigh whether existing environmental, historic-preservation, and public-land statutes constrain the project’s scope and timing. For the residents and activists who have spent weeks watching trucks roll onto the peninsula, the answer to that question may arrive before the next season’s first tee.