Judge ‘furious’ as 430 trees are chopped down from golf course Trump wants to renovate

A federal judge on Monday said she was “furious” with the Trump administration’s move over the weekend to cut down at least 430 trees from a Washington, DC, public golf course that President Donald Trump is seeking to renovate.

US District Judge Ana Reyes, who is overseeing a legal challenge to Trump’s plans to overhaul the East Potomac Golf Course, put a tentative hold on any further tree removal and is holding an emergency hearing Monday, in which she told Justice Department attorneys they had lost “credibility” with her because they gave less than a day’s notice before cutting down the trees.

“More than just being upset and furious right now, I am just beyond disappointed with the government,” Reyes said. When a DOJ attorney said they had done their “best” to give her and the plaintiffs a heads-up, the judge said, her voice raised, “No, you did your absolute worst.”

“I am througoughly unamused right now,” Reyes also said.

The park is one of several renovation projects Trump is working on in Washington, DC. The administration’s desire to turn the public course into a professional course – a renovation that could cost between $20 million and $49 million – has been wrapped up in litigation and angered those who fear it may take away the one public and affordable place to play golf in the nation’s capital.

The Interior Department first gave notice of the tree removal plans on Friday evening in a filing describing the tree-chopping as part of a long-standing maintenance plan that was not connected to “renovation or redesign of the Golf Course.” Crews were at the park by Saturday morning chopping down the trees.

Reyes demanded that Kevin Griess, a National Parks Service official who had submitted court filings describing removal, testify at the Monday court hearing.

Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, claimed he came up with the plan to cut down the trees after receiving an “education” from his staff on a 2019 directive to overhaul the golf course to make it more in line with how it looked when it opened. He said the removal plan was moving forward now because resources and NPS workforce that had been surged for the America 250 events over the summer had recently become available. He said the only awareness he had of Trump’s own plan to redo the golf course was from social media.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

周一，一位联邦法官表示，她对特朗普政府周末砍伐华盛顿特区一处公共高尔夫球场至少 430 棵树木的举动感到“愤怒”，而唐纳德·特朗普总统正寻求对该高尔夫球场进行翻新。

美国地区法官安娜·雷耶斯正在审理一起针对特朗普改造东波托马克高尔夫球场计划的法律挑战，她暂时中止了任何进一步的树木移除行动，并于周一举行了紧急听证会。在听证会上，她告诉司法部律师，由于他们在砍伐树木前只提前不到一天通知，因此他们在她眼中已经失去了“信誉”。

“我现在不仅仅是愤怒和生气，更是对政府感到无比失望，”雷耶斯说道。当司法部的一名律师表示他们已经“尽力”提前通知她和原告时，法官提高了音量说：“不，你们已经竭尽全力了。”

“我现在一点也不觉得好笑，”雷耶斯还说。

该公园是特朗普在华盛顿特区推进的几个改造项目之一。特朗普政府希望将这座公共球场改造成专业球场——这项改造工程可能耗资2000万至4900万美元——但这一计划却陷入了诉讼，并激怒了那些担心此举会剥夺首都唯一一个价格合理的公共高尔夫球场的人们。

内政部于周五晚间首次发布树木移除计划公告，公告中称砍伐树木是长期维护计划的一部分，与“高尔夫球场的翻新或重新设计”无关。周六早上，工作人员已抵达公园开始砍伐树木。

雷耶斯要求国家公园管理局官员凯文·格里斯在周一的法庭听证会上作证，格里斯曾提交法庭文件描述移除过程。

国家广场和纪念公园主管格里斯声称，他是在听取了工作人员关于2019年一项指令的“培训”后才提出砍伐树木的计划。该指令要求对高尔夫球场进行全面改造，使其更接近刚开放时的样貌。他表示，移除计划之所以现在推进，是因为夏季为庆祝美国建国250周年而增派的资源和国家公园管理局（NPS）人手最近已空出来。他还说，他对特朗普重修高尔夫球场的计划一无所知，只是从社交媒体上得知了此事。

这是一则正在更新的新闻。