Donald Trump is finally showing the world the project he’s been obsessing over for months, and he’s promising it will be one of the greatest anywhere on the planet.
The president rolled out the plan on Sunday, Oct. 18, with a glossy illustration and a start date less than a month away. But it landed with baggage, including an angry federal judge, hundreds of freshly cut trees, and a mysterious map spotted on the Resolute Desk days earlier.
Critics say that map was never supposed to be seen, and the woman who posted it may have made things a whole lot worse by trying to hide it.
In a Truth Social post Sunday morning, Trump announced that the Interior Department, under Secretary Doug Burgum, had teamed up with golf course architect Tom Fazio to rebuild East Potomac Golf Links, the historic public course on a man-made island in the Potomac River, into a “World Class Championship Golf Course.”
Trump insisted it would stay “open to the Public” while being built to host the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.
He called the current course “old, broken, dilapidated” and said work would begin Nov. 15, closing the links for about 15 months.
What he didn’t mention is that a judge is still deciding whether he’s allowed to touch it at all.
And social media users were quick to point out that the illustration looks a lot like the blurred image spotted on his desk, the same one his ousted press secretary appeared to scrub from her photos.
Katie Zacharia lasted five days as White House press secretary before Trump fired her on Friday, Oct. 16. That night, she posted a farewell photo of herself standing beside Trump in the Oval Office, writing, “It was an honor to work for him.”
On a stack of blue binders sat a colorful, blurred-out map. On Saturday, Zacharia posted a second photo with her family gathered around Trump. The binders were still there. The map wasn’t.
According to The Daily Beast, the second image showed telltale signs of digital editing. Save East Po, an advocacy group fighting the overhaul, wrote on X that the blurred map “is East Potomac Park.”
That matters because the administration has insisted in court that no final design for the course exists. It has also said the recent tree removal had nothing to do with Trump’s golf plans. Zacharia brushed it off, saying, “Only the Washington Post would turn a very sweet picture into something controversial.” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung accused the press of obsessing over a harmless photo.
The trees are what has the judge heated. On Oct. 10, National Park Service crews cut down 430 trees at the course in a matter of hours. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes blocked any more cutting through Oct. 26 and tore into the Justice Department, telling a government lawyer, “You did your absolute worst,” CBS News reported.
Reyes ordered top Interior and Park Service officials to appear at a hearing on Monday, Oct. 19, to explain who gave the go-ahead. The Justice Department has since asked her to step aside, accusing her of bias.
Online, people weren’t buying Trump’s pitch. “Imagine if we had an actual President, instead we have a head landscaper,” one person wrote.
Another added, “People can’t afford gas and groceries, but he’s obsessed with monuments and golf courses.” A third person accused Trump of “creating a private enclave for the rich on land that Congress designated for the people.”
“‘Let them play golf’ is the new ‘Let them eat cake,’” another joked, while one skeptic asked, “Open to the public, like Mar a Lago is open to the public?”
For Black Washingtonians, the course carries history that goes far beyond a round of golf. According to the National Park Service, East Potomac was a whites-only course until 1941.
That year, three Black men, Asa Williams, George Williams and Cecil R. Shamwell, insisted on playing a round under police guard. Interior Secretary Harold Ickes then desegregated the course, a move that helped pave the way for integrating all national park facilities in 1945.
That legacy is now staring down a high-end makeover. When Trump first floated the idea in the summer, a leaked blueprint was reported followed with a lawsuit arguing the plan violates an 1897 law reserving the park for the public.
By August, chainsaws had already arrived, with the Interior Department brushing off the cuts as routine maintenance.
As for Zacharia, her exit capped a disastrous week that began with a brutal first briefing and spiraled into questions about her credentials before Trump showed her the door.
Now, the farewell photo meant to close that chapter may be the most talked-about thing she did on the job.